The Intersect Couple vs Flashing
by MyNameIsJeffNImLost
Summary: Chuck and Sarah navigate being the only two human Intersects in the world, not flashing enough (in some people's opinion), and staying together. This sequel to the AU story Chuck & Sarah vs Trust is set a year after their initial Intersect downloads. "Chuck & Sarah vs Not Flashing," "Her Sarah vs Her Best Friend's Ex," and "The Intersect Couple vs Family Matters."
1. Faking It

_Published February 9, 2020_

A/N: This story follows "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust." What happened in that story? First, to help keep them straight, here's a short list of the high-level differences of the early season AUs I wrote in 2019:

\- 0 Intersects, after Chuck's was suppressed: "Chuck vs His Former Handler" (post 1.04→1.13) and "Chuck & His Roommate vs the Next Mission" (2.01→ 2.10)

\- 1 Intersect downloaded by Chuck after Chuck and Sarah were already married: "Chuck vs the Nemesis's Ex" (pre S1→1.01) and "The Bartowskis vs the Spy World" (more of 1.01→1.10)

\- 2 Intersects with immediate Charah: "Chuck & Sarah vs the Email" (all 1.01, plus one epilogue chapter set about a month later). It has no sequel because the character dynamic is similar to the end of the next AU.

\- 2 Intersects with Chuck and Sarah slowly developing trust: "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust" (1.01→1.09, plus Thanksgiving and Christmas chapters)

This story is the sequel to that last one. In that story's last chapter, Chuck and Sarah got engaged on Christmas Eve. This story starts about nine months later with Chuck and Sarah still engaged and no wedding date pressure. Ellie and Devon are first in line to the altar, and they haven't planned anything, yet. Both Chuck and Sarah still have the Intersect, but… you'll see what happened to them even though there wasn't a Writers Guild of America strike, like the one between seasons 1 and 2 of _Chuck_.

Many of the events of Chuck-verse still happened in this AU, but the circumstances are different, because there are two human Intersects without too much WT/WT. Bryce remains as dead as he was before the last story started. (Casey's a more deadly shot). The show's events following the repair of the deli girl's phone were preempted by the real girlfriend making sure the deli owner knew the Buy More's assistant manager was off the market. The good guys and Fulcrum still don't know about each other. That means the surveillance devices found in the Buy More during "Chuck vs the Marlin" would never have been placed by Lizzy. The Nerd Herd would have behaved better for a good assistant manager, so Casey never found out about the wedding, and Ilsa got married for her mission. Those events don't matter for this story.

Disclaimer: Nobody else owns anything here, so why would I?

Disclaimer 2: No beta. However, if you PM me corrections, I'll fix them. There's no expiration date.

* * *

**Thursday, September 25, 2008**

Chuck jumped when the Orange Orange freezer door opened behind him. In the empty store, he was behind the counter fixing himself a frozen yogurt. He knew Sarah and Casey were coming up from the new Castle base to the store that served as a front. He had been distracted filling his treat cup and never should have turned his back towards the door from which two assassins were coming.

Fortunately, they were teammates, on his side.

He turned to say hello to the two spies. Casey's face was filled with suspicion. Sarah's had a disapproving scowl. He didn't know how they could have known. He had closed the video feed display on the register before they came up.

"Hi! I just was fixing a frozen snack."

Casey didn't buy it. "Yeah, right."

His fiancée's expression was the one that concerned him. Chuck asked her, "What is it?"

Sarah asked, "Have you had any, yet?"

"Any…? Oh, you mean this yogurt." He lifted his cup of raspberry soft-serve. "No. I was going to put chocolate sauce on it."

"Wait." She closed the distance between them and kissed him on the lips. It was a little of a sloppy kiss, not that Chuck would ever complain.

When they separated, Sarah had taken the cup out of Chuck's hands. She handed it to Casey as she licked her lips. "Yep, you still taste good."

Chuck wrinkled his brow, confused about what had just happened. Apparently, Sarah's disapproving look had nothing to do with what Chuck had been doing a few minutes before. It was about him pilfering a single dish of yogurt. It wasn't even a large.

Casey asked, "What am I supposed to do with this?" He lifted the cup he held.

Sarah went to work pouring a dish of chocolate. When she was done, she added marshmallows and crushed nuts. She gave the rocky road-esque creation to Chuck. To Casey, she said, "I don't care how you taste, so you can eat it or throw it out. I just don't want my Chuck tasking like that nasty raspberry flavor. The government needs to come up with some new flavor for the fruit mix machine. Vanilla, chocolate, and orange are all fine. The fourth flavor has to go."

Casey said, "The government will be so happy you are wasting their product. I'm sure they really care what you think."

"It doesn't sell well—not that any of it does," Sarah argued "That flavor sells worse than the others. Even a different raspberry would be better. If the Orange Orange is going to be the front for our base, even with no customers, it should at least have flavors the team can tolerate."

"It won't matter for long. Just ask your boy toy. He heard, even if you blocked it out." Casey pitched the full cup and sat at the table by the front window.

The store was still open, but Sarah hadn't even bothered to turn the sign to "closed" during the video conference downstairs. It wasn't lunchtime, yet. In theory people could come buy after eating a Sbarro, Subway, or Lou's. The place had only been open a couple weeks, and word was already out to not go there. The yogurt and ice cream at other places was far better, even though you had to leave the plaza. The teenage boys hadn't found her, which would have increased the number of people who came by every day. As a front business, the Federal government didn't want the place to be popular so the team would have to deal with customers that much. Since the store was fully owned by the government, they wouldn't have to deal with store managers, like Scooter.

Chuck joined Casey at the table. Casey asked Chuck, "What do you think about Team Intersect being shut down?"

Chuck stopped his spoon of frozen goodness on the way to his mouth and feigned, "What do you mean?"

Sarah sat by him and didn't mess around. "Chuck, we know you were watching the video conference with Beckman from the register's video screen. I don't know why you weren't included, but there's no doubt you were watching from up here."

Chuck pointed his spoon at Sarah and started, "You know—" He didn't continue because Sarah ate the yogurt right off the spoon. She grinned and looked a little proud. He shouldn't have made it so easy. She could have made her own rocky road instead of eating his, but he suspected she liked taking his more. When they went out together, she'd never get fries, but would always eat almost half of his.

Sarah didn't wait for Chuck to answer Casey's question, to frame the issue. It was the concern she had told Chuck the night before. She said, "Graham's dead. The CIA no longer has someone supervising the Intersect Project. We're the only two in the CIA who have been read-in about the Intersect. Beckman is fully in charge of all things Intersect. However, you and I are in the CIA and not in her chain of command like Casey is. She wants human Intersect agents who follow _her_ orders. She isn't interested in an Intersect analyst and an Intersect agent who don't have to salute. Sure, the first people who were to receive the booby-trapped Intersect were CIA, but they were first to get the CIA out of the project faster. Graham told me the intention was she'd retain control of the technology going forward so it could be uploaded into NSA agents. Now, another Intersect room is gone."

Chuck didn't understand the point of these kinds of power plays. They were all supposed to be on the same side, defending the country. He was glad someone else understood the internal politics better.

Sarah continued, "The question was how would she proceed with Graham out of the picture. It's like I feared. She's going to shut down this team. We haven't flashed on something that would have us participate in a mission since before Thanksgiving. That the last piece of the new Intersect being a Trojan horse didn't change her mind. It doesn't matter that we never had the chance to flash on a chip that went directly from where it was developed in Silicon Valley to DC. Somehow, we were supposed to flash and stop things from going wrong."

Chuck said, "I still don't understand. Right now, we're the only Intersects. Wouldn't she want to keep us where we are?"

Casey said, "You haven't flashed in a while—"

Chuck protested, "I've been flashing on the intel packets I download a couple times a week." Casey was a little surprised. He didn't know the details of how Chuck had been reviewing CIA packets for his job as an analyst every week.

Sarah explained, "Those were for CIA missions. They were for other team's foreign missions and didn't produce actionable intelligence that this team could pursue. From Beckman's perspective, it wouldn't be giving up much."

"But they just built Castle for us," Chuck said, almost in a whine.

"If you ask me," Casey gruffly shared his opinion, "it was a big waste of taxpayer money to do all of that work, then never use it. The stock market is melting down, but it's not like we can sell this place for bail-out money. My guess is they'll re-purpose it as a West Coast tactical center."

Sarah calmly explained the potential situation. "If Team Intersect stays in Burbank, there's a chance a new CIA director would be read-in. That means Beckman would have to share control, again. Any future research would not be solely under her supervision, like it was with the first Intersect computer before Bryce destroyed that one. Since both of the current human Intersects are CIA, her role could diminish. Graham deferred to her quite a bit, probably because Bryce was CIA. It's been a year. One could argue the only reason that Graham didn't take over completely was so he could have an agent and an analyst who worked inside US borders. Now there's a chance to change the power structure. With a new CIA supervisor, there's a strong likelihood we would be ordered somewhere else, anyway."

Sarah grabbed Chuck's hand from which he had still been eating yogurt and steered a spoonful to her mouth. She gave Chuck a peck on the lips as a thank you.

Chuck licked some yogurt off the corner of Sarah month. Nothing was really there, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. Casey might hate displays like that, but he wasn't "public" anymore, and the NSA agent would have to get over it. Sarah had told him many times not to bother with Casey's sense of propriety.

Casey said, "If the team is disbanded, future work would remain under the general's control. She probably figures that you, Chuck, will leave the CIA and that Sarah will be sent somewhere on the other side of the planet."

"Who said I wouldn't retire and stay here?" Sarah protested.

Casey scoffed, "What would you do? Play June Cleaver with Chuck?"

Sarah shrugged. "I have no idea what I'd do. Chuck probably wouldn't like me wielding a big knife around him."

"No. June Cleaver. From the old TV show."

Sarah smirked. "You mean that black and white sit-com from when you were growing up about that kid, Beaver?" Sarah didn't follow most pop culture references, but she knew that classic pop culture one. She hadn't seen _The Twilight Zone_ until a few months before, but she knew some classic shows because she lived in the US, even if she hadn't watched them. Everyone knew some pop culture references.

Sarah took Chuck's hand and squeezed three times. "I don't know what I'd do. They might still not want to send me on missions with the Intersect still in my head. I've only been a spy, but whatever I do, I'm staying with Chuck."

Chuck smiled and gave Sarah a quick peck on the lips. "I'm going wherever you tell me, but what about Casey?"

Chuck and Sarah both looked at the Marine. Sarah said, "He can follow his own girlfriend, but first he has to find one. I'm saying _I_ am not going anywhere, though. Our apartment is the best home I've had since before I was a teenager. Back then, I had a ton of stuffed animals and wasn't interested in boys. Now, I live with the love of my life. I don't want to leave. We'll figure something out."

Casey ignored the "get a girlfriend" suggestion and said, "I'll probably be deployed in the Middle East."

"So, that's it for our team?" Chuck asked. "There's got to be something we could do. Beckman said that we don't need to start mothballing Castle until Saturday, the day after tomorrow, because she has to get some of the tear-down resources authorized, and they won't show up until Monday. She said that gives us a weekend head-start."

Casey grunted and said, "I'll want to get wrapped up here before I'm shipped out with new orders."

Chuck protested, "There's no way this team stays together?"

"Not unless you flash before Monday."

This was the worst. Chuck used to cram well in college, but since then, he didn't do well with pressure. At least Sarah wanted to stay with him. He wasn't sure that would actually be the best for her, though. He didn't want to be the person that held her back.

Sarah quietly suggested, "We could pretend to flash."

Casey looked at Sarah, surprised at the suggestion. Chuck asked to make sure, "You mean fake a flash?"

"Yeah. It's not like they've ever figured out what triggers one."

"You mean I do one of these?" Chuck squinted his eyes a little and slowly shook his head in a slow way, trying to look suave.

"It doesn't look like that," Sarah said.

"Oh?" Chuck looked to Casey who shook his head to agree with Sarah. Chuck looked back to her. "What does it look like exactly?"

"Well, it kind of looks like you saw something really bright and tasted something really sour at the same time. I don't know… It would kind of be like…" Sarah crossed her eyes looking at her nose and twitched her head quickly.

Chuck didn't say anything to criticize his fiancée's fake flash. Instead, he appealed to the NSA agent with a look. Casey shook his head to that one, too.

Sarah shrugged. "It's not like I ever have to fake it with Chuck around." Casey's groan was a little pained. Chuck didn't turn _red_. Despite the boost to his ego, it was more of a purple.

Back to the topic of fake flashes, Casey said, "I don't condone any of this, but a flash has to be for real, actionable intel. It can't just be from Chuck hacking somewhere to dig up some dirt in the LA area because without a flash, we'd need a warrant. A flash gives us the right to follow a lead into the field because of the exigent need and the highly classified source."

Sarah looked down in defeat and nodded her head. Chuck didn't want to give up, but if Sarah was giving up, he knew there was not much he could do. She was always five steps ahead, seeing all of the angles.

Casey stood up and said to the two of them, "Surprisingly, it hasn't been too bad working with you both. I have to get back to work before _my assistant manager_ writes me up during my last week." He stared at Chuck almost daring him to try to write him up at his cover-job. The look definitely showed he really wasn't worried about Chuck. He nodded to each of them once and left.

Sarah put her palm on Chuck's cheek. A little depressed sounding, she said, "The schedule says the two creepy idiots aren't working today. Do you need to go in? I don't see any reason to keep this place open. I'd rather go home with you."

Chuck took her hand and said, "Let's go. I'll call Big Mike from the car."

* * *

A/N: In canon, it took a few months for them to come up with the Obama guava flavor. It had to replace something.

How many of you think this is it for the team with two Intersects? Time to fake a flash? It can't go as badly as it did with the wedding planner. Can it?


	2. Standing Orders

_Published February 10, 2020_

A/N: Twice the human Intersects doesn't mean twice the flashes.

* * *

**The next night**

"Are you ready to do this?" Chuck quietly asked. "One last mission?"

She turned to look at him squarely in the eyes, her blue orbs holding his full attention. They were undercover, dressed as guests at the fancy event for a Super PAC. Before the mission, Casey had complained that the goal of the PAC was to raise money for a US Representative who wasn't there and was unopposed in the upcoming election. Who knew where the money was really going?

Earlier in the evening, Chuck told Sarah that he was embarrassed by his rented monkey suit and that he'd probably be the only man there not wearing a gold Rolex. Sarah thought it was ironic because considering the advanced technology for his watch's tracker, it was worth more. She was clear to him that she cared more about the man than what he wore. Also, she said they should have a wardrobe for each of them at Castle.

Chuck made eye contact with Casey, who was behind the bar. The senior spy widened his eyes and looked towards the dance floor. Chuck could barely believe he was being told to dance with Sarah and fawn all over her. He didn't need to be told. Sarah knew he wasn't big on PDA, but when it came to both spying and PDA, she was in charge. He was waiting for her to indicate she was ready.

Sarah smiled at Chuck and adjusted his bow-tie, even though it was already straight. Her heels were so high, she didn't have to tilt up to give him a brief kiss on the lips. The two of them stood off to the side of the dance floor, ready to establish a reason for them to excuse themselves from the party to go to another part of the house.

Chuck loved Sarah's silk, salmon-colored dress. It had a few spaghetti straps over her shoulders and across her otherwise bare back. His only problem was it was supposed to be, if necessary, a distraction for security. However, it distracted him, too. Then again, that probably had little to do with the dress. He could say it was because her hair was up, exposing the column of her neck, but if he was honest with himself, it would make no difference if her hair was down.

Sarah was confused by one thing. She quietly asserted, "This isn't going to be our last mission. This plan is going to work."

"I know that. One way to guarantee something is not the last mission is to say it's the last mission, jinxing it. I said it's the last mission so it wouldn't be the last one."

That left Sarah even more confused. They were going to pull this not-last mission off, and Team Intersect would stay together.

* * *

**That morning**

Chuck led Sarah downstairs by the hand into Castle, with Casey following.

At the base of Castle, Sarah asked, "What's this about, Chuck?"

Casey followed with, "Yeah, why are we here? A delivery is coming to the store in twenty minutes. I always review the manifest. I might not have that job for much longer, but I'm going to keep doing everything I'm supposed to for as long as it's my job."

Chuck held up a finger to indicate they should be patient a moment, and he placed a video call to General Beckman. Casey snapped his posture in his Buy More green polo and khakis. Sarah released Chuck's hand and stood as formally as she could in the orange tank top and light blue sweatshirt that made up her double-O uniform.

Beckman said, "Boys and girl, why did you contact me? Our next meeting is tomorrow morning."

Chuck came right out and said it. "I flashed."

Beckman frowned even more than the normal scowl that was almost always on her face. She said, "I'm surprised."

"That I flashed?"

Sarah, tired of waiting for her turn, quickly asked Chuck, "You flashed? What did you flash on?"

Chuck held up his phone to show a photo he had taken of a $100 bill. That caused _Sarah_ to flash.

Chuck grabbed her upper arms to steady her. She didn't need it, but she smiled at Chuck's reaction to her flash. She liked the concern he expressed by holding her.

They turned to look back at the screen and Beckman's disapproving stare. The general said, "I'm surprised _and disappointed_ that you're actually attempting your plan of a fake flash."

"But it's not a fake," Chuck protested.

The general ignored him and said to the other military officer on the call, "I can barely believe that the Intersects would go through with this scheme I witnessed yesterday."

Chuck said, "I deleted the recording. I always do when we have discussions about the Intersect when not in a more security facility like where we are now. I consider the Orange Orange and the Buy More home theater room less secure because the public goes there. She must have seen it live._ Creepy._"

Beckman said, "Regardless of how I saw it, I know your plan."

That wasn't a denial. Chuck stayed with his "creepy" assessment. He was so happy that the cameras in his bedroom disappeared when he and Sarah started a real relationship under the cover.

"It was never serious enough to become a plan," Sarah said. "What just happened was a real flash."

"I do admit your fake flash was better than what I saw yesterday on surveillance. You must have been practicing."

Sarah said, "I didn't practice, but that wouldn't have mattered because as I said, this was a _real flash_. Chuck showed me a photo of an actual counterfeit $100 bill, and that caused me to flash."

Chuck added, "And I didn't get it off the Internet. See." He swiped his phone to a photo showing a smiling Morgan holding a bunch of similar bills fanned out in his hand. Chuck had taken the photos at the Buy More a few minutes earlier.

That morning, shortly after the store opened, someone bought a big screen TV with $1000 in cash. As assistant manager, he was called to the front to take the money back to the store safe. The bills caused him to flash. Several employees thought that much cash was cool. Chuck took a few snapshots as evidence of what he flashed on. The action didn't hurt the cover because it played into the spectacle.

Beckman said, "It makes sense that you would go with counterfeiting considering Agent Walker's experience with the Secret Service."

"I worked with the Office of Protective Operations and had no contact with the Office of Investigations."

The general ignored her and continued, "When we talk tomorrow morning, I expect us to ignore this final desperate attempt so we can discuss what next to do to dismantle the team and put the Burbank base in mothballs." She disconnected the call.

Chuck and Sarah both silently looked at Casey. He said, "I know it wasn't a fake flash. I've seen several real ones, and know that was one. It doesn't matter. We have orders."

Sarah's lips turned slightly, and she said, "You're right. We have orders. You want to follow all of our orders, don't you?"

"Of course."

"We have standing orders to follow-up on all flashes that are signs of ongoing criminal activity that threatens national interests. The source of this counterfeit money is unknown, but from the flash, we know someone is pushing counterfeit money into circulation. The money could be used to fund many illegal activities. Nothing Beckman just said countermands those orders."

"The general said our next meeting was about dismantling the team."

"The said she _expects_ certain things to happen. She didn't _order_ us to ignore other _standing orders_ before tomorrow. As spies, when the unexpected comes up, we deal with it. It's not like you could stop Chuck and me anyway, even if you went _against_ your standing orders."

Casey grunted in a way that signaled he was starting to be convinced. Sarah turned from Casey to Chuck. "Chuck, this cash was spent in the Buy More. Is there any way we can determine where it's from?"

Chuck thought Sarah was really good at getting her way by telling people what to think. He figured it was something he perfected long before she was in the CIA. He took half a step towards one of the keyboard that would provide him a terminal from which he could access Buy More's internal security network. Upon seeing Casey's stern look, he stopped. Casey wasn't completely past his earlier anger. Anger might be Casey's baseline, but Chuck wasn't risking it.

Sarah continued with her reasoning. "If we do this, we're not disobeying orders. We're _following_ them. Casey, I'm telling you this because you deserve to know. If we don't do this or if we do this and the team is disbanded anyway, Chuck and I are leaving the CIA." That surprised Chuck, but he figured it was her call. He was an analyst at her suggestion. He didn't need to be in the CIA if she wasn't.

She said, "I don't want Chuck abandoning his family and friends to travel around the world with me on dangerous missions. They are my future-family-in-law and future friends-in-law, too. I don't know what I'd do here, but I'd stay with Chuck in _our_ home. What happens to you, Casey? If Beckman goes ahead and disbands the team, wouldn't you be sent to the Middle East, whether you help us stop this counterfeiting or not? You wouldn't be punished for agreeing with Beckman's misconception, and you wouldn't be punished for _following orders_ and pursuing a lead from a flash. You probably would like going to the Middle East. Would you still like leaving if you knew whoever is printing this counterfeit money is continuing to get away with doing it?"

Casey grunted again, and Chuck said, "I know that one!" He could safely start looking at Buy More surveillance records. He took one of the wireless keyboards to sit at the table in the center of Castle.

First, Chuck brought up security camera footage of the Buy More. In a couple minutes he identified the woman who paid cash. She ordered delivery and installation, so he got a name: Rebecca Jacobs.

"Nice work, Chuck." Sarah voiced aloud, "Where did she get that much cash?"

Chuck looked up Rebecca Jacobs in a financial disclosures database. She never had a cash withdraw or deposit over twenty thousand dollars at a bank, something that would have been recorded by law. She could have withdrawn ten thousand in cash, but that would be odd to use at a retail store when a credit card would have made more sense, especially for a large expenditure considering one of those cash back plans.

Assuming the woman wasn't the counterfeiter, Chuck thought maybe she could have used money from another source, like an organization's event where she worked. Although, it might be illegal for her to take money out of that. Maybe it would be ok in some circumstances if it was some kind of reimbursement. He decided to look at her Facebook account to see what organizations she was in that could have had some event that used that much cash.

It turned out Becky Jacobs was very active on Facebook, having posted dozens of pictures over the past couple years. Skimming through the photos, something caught his attention. Back in December, there was a photo of her in a black cocktail dress showing off by fanning a couple thousand dollars cash. Chuck said, "Here's the cash, but why wouldn't she take it to the bank right away?"

Sarah provided a theory. "Maybe she didn't want to create a money trail. Hundred dollar bills aren't very liquid. Many stores don't accept anything over twenties. I'm a little surprised the Buy More did."

"That's why I was involved in the transaction," Chuck said, indicating it was plausible. "This is only the second time I've dealt with large amounts of cash in a year of being the assistant manager. Most people use credit for anything more than twenty dollars, and we don't accept personal checks or traveler's checks. Last time there was only one large bill."

Casey said, "So she got the money at some party, held most of it because she didn't want to declare it on her taxes and couldn't easily spend it, but she still posted it on her Facebook account?"

Sarah pointed out, "The photo doesn't have an amount and doesn't even prove it's hers. It's not evidence. Chuck's photo showed Morgan holding the money that was the Buy More's, not his. Where did she take that photo?"

Chuck navigated around the site and found contemporary posts that showed it was taken on a night she had a date to a charity fundraiser—one that had gambling on a yacht.

Casey said, "Doesn't she know you're supposed to lose money at charity fundraisers like that? Figures she's a tax evader."

"Her date probably provided the money to bet. This event was shortly before Anna's parents died at the same New Constellation Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey," Chuck pointed out

"Weren't they on a boat that had an engine explosion and sunk? Are you saying you think those are related?" Casey asked.

Sarah voiced her take. "Counterfeit money was laundered at a gambling event. There was a freak accident nearby a couple days later. It'd be a really strange coincidence if it _wasn't_ related. What was the event?"

Chuck did a search and found it: "A fundraiser for relief aid to people in Taiwan."

Sarah said, "That's suspicious. Sure, there are needy people everywhere, but it's not like Taiwan is a poor country. It's top 50 in per-capita GDP. There's more worthy international charities. It's perfect for laundering money."

Chuck followed a hunch and pulled up a list of people killed in the explosion. Casey pointed at one name, "Rashan Chen was an attaché to the Taiwanese premiere. He was dirty. Whoever was behind the charity event probably sunk the ship to cover something."

Chuck followed some more links and said, "The boat belonged to Lon Kirk, the billionaire."

Casey grunted, "He's politically connected. It'll be hard to point a finger at him unless the evidence is rock solid. He's probably one of those people who's insulated from the recent stock market crash and who's given money to both Presidential campaigns to guarantee he has influence on the next administration."

Chuck's eyes widened. This was the type of thing he still needed the experienced spies to take the lead. "So what can we do?"

From where Sarah was, standing behind Chuck, she squeezed his shoulders. "It's Friday night. He's probably hosting some fundraiser tonight for another fake charity. Can we find out what his plans are?"

Chuck search around. "Here it is. He is hosting a gala at one of his mansions."

"Perfect."

"But we don't have tickets."

"You can fix that, though, can't you?" She leaned over his shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Sure. I can even find out who is catering and get Casey a job working as a bartender."

Sarah smiled and slyly asked Casey, "You don't want to miss out on another chance to pour drinks, do you? Sorry, there won't be gunplay as long as we get in and out cleanly."

Casey just grunted. With concern Chuck said, "If Casey is doing that, are you saying I'll go with you as your arm candy?"

"Of course. I want _you_ as my date."

Chuck skeptically said, "That would mean on this mission, I won't be in the car."

"It'll be fine. Casey will be there for back up. He and I will be there to protect you while you hack into one of the computers in his home and find the evidence we need. This will prove the value of our _real_ flashes and stop the flow of fake money."

She turned and looked directly at Casey. "Isn't this better? We can keep a corrupt man from influencing the next President, whoever that is. If it convinces Beckman to keep the team together, that's a bonus."

Casey acknowledged, "It would be nice to not have to worry about breaking in new partners. All of the girly feelings floating around this team are almost too much, but at least I know what to expect with you two, and I'm working with the best. When you leave the party to find a private room for Chuck to do his thing, make sure you stay on-mission and don't actually do what everyone will think you are doing."

* * *

A/N: Implied orders are only implied. Standing orders are real orders. I'm reminded a little of one of Asimov's short stories I read about thirty years ago, "Runaround," which was in _I, Robot_ and _Robot Visions_. It introduced the Three Laws of Robots with a conundrum between a weak second law suggestion and an extremely strong third law condition.

A classic fanfic story about what to do when not flashing: "Chuck vs The Doldrums" by Altonish. This Chuck and Sarah are flashing, though.


	3. Mission Dancing

_Published February 11, 2020_

A/N: We know the mission's _un_officially a go, but what happened?

* * *

**That night, on the mission**

When the music started, Sarah took Chuck's hand and led him on to the dance floor. As they started to dance a Foxtrot, Chuck softly said, "I know how to tango, but this isn't a tango. You'd be leading, anyway." He added, "And there's nothing wrong with that."

Sarah said, "It's a good thing this isn't a tango. I told you when I was teaching you that the tango is a bad dance if you're on a mission because you have to look away from your partner in an artificial way and can't scope out security."

Chuck hoped the gorgeous woman in his arms was checking out security because he was too distracted, even with the dance not being a tango. He was holding his own in the dance, though. Sarah had taught him well.

Sarah said, "We both know what happened the last time we tangoed at home when Ellie and Devon were out."

"I think that had something to do with the fact that we were both wearing only towels."

Chuck spun Sarah out and back in. She rotated an extra turn and ended up flush against him. She inhaled deeply in and out, then backed up to the normal distance for a dancing partner outside of a Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey movie.

"That's not the only reason not to tango," Sarah breathed out. "Right now, it's taking a lot of restraint to keep dancing. Dancing with you isn't a good idea for a place where the guards carry machine guns, as is often the case at some of the parties I've been at in other countries. You make it hard to stay focused."

Chuck and Sarah continued to spin around each other as they traversed the floor. "Surely, you've done this many times before, with Bryce."

They kept up their dance, hips occasionally brushing. Sarah told Chuck, "Yes, Bryce and I danced at soirees like this. We never tangoed together, though. He was less distracting than you are."

"What did you dance? Maybe the Salsa? Or something else?"

Sarah leaned back as Chuck dipped her. When she came up, her new position was a little closer. There weren't mimicking an eighties movie set in the sixties, though, so she didn't back off. She also didn't answer Chuck's questions about her dances with Bryce. Instead she voiced her take on what she and Chuck were doing. "We're only this restrained so we will maintain some level of decorum on the dance floor."

"This is restraint? Speak for yourself. You know how I am about PDA."

"I _am_ speaking for myself, and I'm about thirty seconds from dragging you home to our bed." She went back to Chuck's original question. "Bryce and I would do the lambada."

"The forbidden dance."

"Bryce and I could do it because we were together, but not like you and I are. Everything we did was first about the mission."

"And I don't know the lambada." They moved back and forth into each other.

"I can teach you, but it'll take some time."

Chuck spun Sarah away from him and back in again. "Because I'm not really much of a dancer?"

"No. Because if we do that dance, we won't finish many lessons before finding something we'd rather do. It's the same reason we can't do that dance on a mission. It'll be fun teaching you, though." Sarah smiled as her eyes stared deep into Chuck's.

"But how are we supposed to convince everyone here we're going to find a room, not do something like hack into their network?"

Sarah lifted her knee, and Chuck held it to his hip. She said, "If anyone here doesn't realize what we are _twenty_ seconds from doing, they haven't been paying attention. We don't need to waste time convincing those people." She put her hand behind his head and pulled him in for a full, wet kiss. There went half of the twenty seconds.

Chuck and Sarah stopped dancing and stared at each other, both breathing hard. Sarah used one of their linked hands to lead Chuck off the dance floor and steer them to the grand staircase that led up to the second floor. Up there, they'd find a computer where Chuck would look for data for the mission.

With the cover established and the sneaking around part of the mission started, Chuck was sure his hands had to be sweating up a storm. Sarah apparently didn't care, squeezing harder as they walked up the stairs together. Sarah had been right. No one had the slightest suspicion they were doing anything but finding a private room.

Halfway down a hallway to their destination, a guard came around the corner and spotted the couple. His presence probably meant they weren't allowed to find the closest bed, not to mention the closet computer. Chuck had just under two seconds to start panicking before Sarah opened the closet door next to them and shoved him inside.

She wasted no time pressing Chuck up against the shelves inside the walk-in closet. Chuck wasn't about to stand idly by while the love of his life put her tongue down his throat. He pulled Sarah flush up against him as she threaded her fingers through his curls.

After a couple moments, he started to wonder if they were actually going to follow through with their cover. He had thought the dance was just a premise to find some privacy so they could get away from the party and search the house. After Sarah undid his tie and worked a hand through his half-opened shirt, he wasn't certain the cover was really a cover. The door behind them opened, and Chuck felt Sarah break away. Before he could focus on what was happening, he heard a bang and a thud.

"Give me a hand," Sarah harshly whispered, ordering Chuck to help her pull the guard on the floor from the hallway into the closet. The noise he had heard was her knocking the burly man out. "We have to hurry and finish the mission before he wakes up."

Chuck worked with Sarah to pull the unconscious man into the closet. Once the man was propped up against the side so they could shut the door, Sarah pushed Chuck up against the shelves again and resumed passionately kissing him. Chuck was just getting into Sudden Kiss, Round 2, cupping Sarah's face in his hands, when he felt her push him back and disengage.

Chuck didn't know what to think. He wasn't used to the sharp hot and cold changes. Sarah explained, "This is why we shouldn't go on more missions together."

"Don't trust me to be your spy partner?" Chuck asked with concern. This entire evening was reaffirming that he shouldn't be a spy. Spying was for his future other-half. He was better-off in front of a computer screen.

"That's not it. I don't trust _myself_ to stay on mission. Assuming we succeed, maybe Casey should be my cover date on future missions. With him, I wouldn't be trying to decide if it would be better to write-off the mission and take my partner home."

Chuck couldn't help but smile a little at that. Sarah took the guard's gun and smashed his earpiece and mic. Then she reached into Chuck's inside coat pocket, took a tranquilizer dart, and stuck the guard in the neck, giving them more time to complete the mission. Chuck fixed his shirt and tie. They returned to the hallway, closed the closet door, and resumed their journey to the first room they intended to search. She started, "If this doesn't work—"

"This is going to work. Don't you think this is going to work?"

"Of course I think this is going to work. I'm working with the CIA's best techno-magician. But _if_ it doesn't work… never mind. I'm just happy I have a partner that follows my lead."

"If kissing you like that is following your lead, then yes, I will always do that, on or off a mission."

Sarah gave Chuck a quick peck then knelt in front of a locked door. On the other side of the door was the room they had identified on semantics that afternoon as being the most likely candidate for an office with a computer where Chuck could do his thing. Sarah had the lock open in just a few seconds. Chuck thanked her for her skill with a quick peck of his own.

They entered what ended up being an office as they hoped. A desk was in the middle of the room, and on it, an open laptop in sleep-mode.

Sarah said, "I don't trust you as a traditional spy partner, and I don't trust myself around you, but I do trust your ability to hack into anything. This next part of the mission is all you. Wait." She pointed at a painting behind the desk. "I bet that's in front of a safe. You do that, while I get this."

Chuck sat at the desk and cracked his fingers. Sarah removed the painting from the wall to reveal the safe she had suspected. Chuck plugged in a jump drive and used a special program to bypass the password prompt. They weren't racing, but about the same time he got in, Sarah opened the door to the safe.

Chuck was about to open a spreadsheet with a suspicious filename, when Sarah placed a wrapped stack of one hundred dollar bills onto the desk. Chuck looked closely and saw the serial number of the top bill was from the same counterfeit series he had flashed on at the Buy More. He stopped his work on the computer and let out a low whistle. He looked behind him at the open safe embedded in the wall. It was filled with similar stacks making up maybe a million dollars. For a billionaire, that was not much more than walking-around money. Still, it made him wonder how much money of Lon Kirk's fortune was fake.

Chuck opened a file, revealing an electronic ledger. He didn't recognize the names. The amounts were in two different colors.

Looking over Chuck shoulder, Sarah said, "Maybe the colors mean counterfeit cash and electronic transfers."

"Getting in was easy enough, but I don't know what these dates and codes mean."

Sarah's face was really close to his as she scanned down the screen. Chuck definitely agreed that they shouldn't be partners on these types of infiltration missions. It was too distracting having her so close he could hear her breathe. He thought he should say something, but before he could, she flashed.

"You just flashed when I didn't!" That had never happened. Sarah put her hand against her forehead and closed her eyes. That one must have hurt. He asked, "What did you flash on?"

Sarah pointed at the screen and said, "That date—about sixteen months ago. It's the day before my mom's birthday."

"What's so special about the date that year?"

"It's the day of a big drug bust in San Diego that Carina told me about. I remember because the next night she called and wanted me to go out with her and celebrate."

That little bit of information caused Chuck to flash. "That's the detail I was missing. Until you said something, I didn't know that date was about a shipment. Knowing the context let me flash on the fact that Kirk used counterfeit money to bribe security at the docks."

He figured they had enough information to get the Secret Service and maybe the DEA to raid the place. All they had to do was get out cleanly. He still had one question. "Did you have fun with Carina?"

"It wasn't much of a celebration. I spent the whole night deflecting questions about my relationship with Bryce. I already no longer wanted him as a boyfriend because he flirted with virtually all other women on missions, but I wasn't sure how to dump someone I might still have as a partner in the field. I didn't want to talk to _her_ about it. She doesn't take _any_ relationship—good or bad—seriously."

Chuck closed the spreadsheet, copied the files to the jump drive, and put the laptop back in sleep mode. Sarah closed the safe so the bills would be found during the raid they'd set up.

"We did it! We completed the mission!" Chuck gave Sarah a quick hug.

"Of course we did, Chuck, but we have to get out of here. Let's go." Sarah playfully swatted him on the butt.

Chuck and Sarah casually exited though the front. They were fast enough that there was no chance the guard had woken from the tranquilizer. Casey, no longer serving drinks, picked them up in his Crown Vic. It was a little out of place considering all of the stretch limos out front. Ironically, it was better armed and fortified than any of the other vehicles. Like Chuck's watch, it was worth more.

"Did you get what we need?" Casey asked.

Sarah smugly said, "Of course. Lon Kirk is the source of the counterfeit money. We found a safe filled with it and an incriminating ledger. There's also possible drug connections and who knows what else. I'll call this in. When a tactical team raids this place, they'll find all the evidence they need. We've confirmed that this is worth pursuing despite Kirk's political connection. We never would have found anything without the Intersect flashes."

Chuck added, "And Sarah flashed before I did!"

"Chuck flashed, too, after I told him the date of a DEA raid that I happened to know about. My guess is there were too many dates in the ledger and too many things happened on that date for a correlation to be made without something else highlighting it. I happened to have personal knowledge, and I told Chuck which event was relevant.

Casey grunted. "Looks like I'll be staying in Los Angeles a while. It's nice being on a team that gets the job done. Hopefully, we won't have to wait so long for the next flash."

* * *

A/N: Things are better for Team Intersect, though from a certain point of view, they went rogue. From another point of view, they followed orders. The point of view still has to be figured out—Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi are not necessary.


	4. Update

_Published February 12, 2020_

A/N: Beckman planned on shutting down this incarnation of Team Intersect so it would remain under her purview. What now?

* * *

**_**Monday, 5 AM PDT  
**_**

Casey stood in his living room with Walker and Bartowski ready to receive a call at 5 AM sharp. He was already dressed in his Buy More green polo and khakis for his shift that started in over four hours. Originally, he was planning on resigning from that job today, but that shouldn't be necessary anymore, and he was ready for his scheduled shift.

The lovebirds standing next to him looked like they rolled out of bed three minutes before. The moron analyst was wearing plaid pajama pants and a nerd T-shirt. The love-struck spy was wearing a pair of her boy toy's boxers and another T-shirt, presumably one Chuck gave her. He hoped she wasn't enough gone to buy her own. Chuck wore his typical Converse high-tops, shoes that someone with his name should be _required_ to wear. Walker wore the fuzzy slippers she got from her other two housemates for Christmas. Casey had seen that pair a few times over the past few months, but they still looked out of place on Walker. The major knew this meeting was not going to go as the general expected, but he wished they would show some respect to their boss even if she didn't understand that "first thing in the morning" for DC was still dark on the West Coast.

General Beckman appeared on his TV screen. Her sour disposition got even worse after her first view of the team. "Why are you all not at Castle?"

The CIA agent spoke up first. "It's 5 in the morning and still dark outside. Chuck and I were in bed five minutes ago." Casey mentally noted his initial estimate of three minutes was low, but not by much.

"You have a lot to do before the tear-down crew arrives on Monday. I thought you'd appreciate a day away, but had assumed you'd want to get an early start today."

Walker didn't back down. "There's no longer a need for that. You probably weren't alerted because our involvement in the operation was minimized. You'll see reports from the Secret Service and DHS about their teams' involvement in last night's operation, as well as individual mission reports from Chuck, Casey, and me in your email inbox. Even though our involvement was compartmentalized, we did provide the tip and initial evidence that led to the raid of Lon Kirk's mansion to seize evidence of his illegal activity. Also, Chuck and I each flashed twice, so our reports include information about the flashes related to the operation."

Beckman sighed. "You _actually_ flashed? You hadn't flashed in months but conveniently flashed twice at the eleventh hour."

Chuck said, "I've flashed several dozen times in the last few months, reviewing the intel packets that Director Graham sent me."

"What do you mean? Why wasn't I told about them?"

"It was never for missions that this team could run. They were all for regular CIA operations in other countries. I reviewed intel for my job as a CIA analyst. You probably weren't informed because it was all about ongoing missions. Since they were for CIA-exclusive operations, Director Graham probably didn't want to fill the NSA in about everything the CIA was doing. A few months ago, Sarah was allowed to look at a pre-mission file once to ensure her Intersect was still working. Her flash only confirmed what I had already flashed. The three of us decided to keep her out of future intelligence reviews because of the possible physical side-effects. Flashes have always hit her harder."

"I see. But this time you _happened_ to flash in the Buy More?"

"Yeah. It was a strange coincidence: a lead came to _us_ in an electronics store. You know about the first pair of flashes. The second ones we each had were on the mission. They gave us the lead necessary to get the Secret Service and DHS involved. I thought it would be the DEA, but the Coast Guard is involved with port security, and the raid was inland, so the DHS probably took charge of coordination."

Beckman bypassed the CIA agent and analyst with her next question. "Major Casey, why did you disobey my orders and carry-out this mission?"

"Ma,am, I didn't disobey orders. You never countermanded your standing orders to pursue _all_ leads from Intersect flashes. I've seen enough flashes in person to know what I witnessed during the call yesterday was _not_ an act. Last night we found more of the counterfeit money and a log showing how it has been used."

"And you stirred up a political mess. Do you know the types of connections Lon Kirk has?"

Casey said, "We aren't tied to this, Ma'am, and the complete secrecy of the two human Intersects was maintained. Just because some rich snob had connections doesn't give him the right to spend monopoly money to smuggle drugs and do who knows what else. Anyone who's found to be complicit deserves what they get. Political connections shouldn't make them immune. They'll investigate, but there's a strong suspicion he was involved with sinking a yacht back in December, killing a half-dozen people."

Addressing the group, the general said, "I suppose you want things to go back to the way things were, with all of you not doing anything useful very often."

"With the destruction of another Intersect download computer and no leads," Casey said, "the protection of the two human Intersects we have is even more important."

"And you two want to stay on this team, but with a new CIA supervisor?"

Walker said, "Bringing in someone else might not be a good idea until the security problems are solved." She took Chuck's hand. "If Chuck and I were reassigned, we were going to resign. Last night's mission went smoothly, but it confirmed that I don't want him regularly put into danger and that I don't want to break-in a new partner. It just so happens…" She pulled out a small, smooth, white case and held it up.

Chuck asked, "What's that?"

Casey answered, a little in awe, "That's a spy will. Graham gave you his spy will."

Chuck followed up his question with another. "What's that mean?"

Casey answered again. "It's something CIA field operatives do. I guess some CIA supervisors still do, even after they start riding a desk. Spy wills have a little bit of mystique around them because a cover agent says what they really think after they are dead. They're given to the people most important to them. NSA agents don't bother with one because we're military and follow military protocol. A regular will is good enough for us, and it's necessary for the distribution of military benefits. I don't know about other agencies. I wouldn't expect the FBI to use them because they're basically glorified police."

Beckman wasn't impressed. "Spy wills have no legal standing."

Walker admitted, "It's not a full spy will. Graham's wife got his. It was left in their safe-deposit box. She wrote me a note saying it contained a personal letter addressed to her. That's typical for a spy will. It didn't contain any information about CIA operations. The next Director of Special Operations will get access to Graham's files at work. Along with the spy will, there was this second case. Graham's wife was given instructions to forward it to me, unopened."

Still not impressed, Beckman said, "Figures he'd try to give orders from the grave. He didn't have the authority to order me around even when he was alive. What does that one say?"

"It's not orders. It's mostly advice. He recruited me out of high school, so he was always sharing his opinion with me."

"High school?" Casey said in amazement. "You've practically been a spy as long as I have."

Bartowski joked, "She said high school, not preschool."

Casey glared at the moron. Agent Walker ignored them and explained the contents of her spy will supplemental capsule. "Graham stated that because of security concerns, the Intersect is not recorded in any of the files he left for his successor. That means that Chuck and I are the only CIA officers who are aware that we've downloaded the Intersect. Graham provided instructions on how Chuck can find and get into his personal Intersect files. He's leaving the decision about when to disclose this information to his successor up to your discretion, General, so you remain in charge of the Intersect project. If the new CIA director isn't pulled into this team, the data can be put into Chuck's and my private CIA personal files that would only be unsealed upon our deaths. Because Graham knew me for a decade, he trusted me to know what to do to protect the only two people whose heads have all of our nation's secrets."

The general wasn't happy. "And now I suppose you're going to use that to get yourself put in charge of this team and prevent it from going away?"

Walker shook her head. "No. The leadership of this team is up to you. Graham assumed the beta Intersect downloads would be successful. He said he wouldn't be surprised if I stopped going on missions in other countries and stayed with my future husband. Since we hadn't been flashing on things we encounter in our everyday lives, he figures we aren't a security concern any more than any retired agent. The idea no one retires from the CIA is a myth. It just doesn't always happen because it's dangerous. Instead of retiring completely, Graham suggested Chuck still do some computer work remotely and thought I could help screen potential agents."

Beckman said with disapproval, "None of the agents who were supposed to download the beta Intersect survived. Now, I'm stuck with two barely functioning human Intersects that are practically out the door."

"But we just flashed twice, each," Bartowski protested.

Walker said under her breath, "Don't push it." She saw Chuck pull something out of his pajama pants pockets. "Well?" She nodded at what Bartowski pulled out.

He said to the screen. "Sarah wasn't the only one to get a surprise delivery." He helped up two pairs of black sunglasses in his hands. "Yesterday, after our call, I stopped by my locker at the Buy More and found these."

The CIA agent didn't like that revelation. "You found mysterious sunglasses in your locker at work yesterday? And you hid them from me?"

"You were focused on mission planning. I wasn't really hiding them. I just didn't point them out."

Walker silently assessed the nerd for a few seconds. Then she said, "You're getting better hiding things—a lot better than when you tried and failed to hide my birthday gift." She held up the bracelet with the new charm that had been added in the spring. Casey knew the new charm was added in April or May, but he never figured out the exact date, not that Chuck knew the date to give it. He added to his internal observation list that even though the other two were for all practical purposes not dressed after getting up from bed, Walker had put her "engagement ring" on her wrist.

She took a pair of sunglasses, opened them, and looked at them in her hands. "The Buy More isn't very secure, but it's still strange that these showed up in _your_ locker. They're heavy and have this chip." The CIA agent looked to the side at him. "Other than Casey and me, who would break-in to your locker and leave these?"

"I thought that thing on the side was strange. That's why I didn't just put them on and pretend I'm really Charles Carmichael, super-spy. I brought them here instead."

Casey could imagine Chuck play-acting he was someone like James Bond. Considering the cipher, who knows what kind of Trojan horse they could be. However, the bomb sensor alarm in the entrance to his apartment didn't go off when Chuck brought them home. Then again, the prevailing theory was the cipher wasn't a bomb but instead triggered explosives already in the beta Intersect's computer room. Casey's home was full of weapons, but they were safely stored and weren't deployed to level the place.

Beckman said, "Those sunglasses might contain Intersect technology."

That made no sense. Bartowski and Walker downloaded the Intersect by looking at a computer screen. In the after-action reports he read about the explosions, two Intersect rooms had dozens of screens on each side. It never made sense to him because people couldn't see them all at once. He asked the general for an explanation. "What do you mean? I wasn't aware sunglasses were used with the Intersect."

"Polarized glasses are used to let people be in the room while the Intersect images are being displayed. People wearing the glasses can avoid downloading the Intersect," Beckman said.

Walker pointed out, "That doesn't explain these. Chuck and I are already Intersects. The Intersect download computer was destroyed. None of this explains these chips on the side."

"There's been research into using the lenses to transmit the images. They'd be a more mobile delivery mechanism."

"That would explain why they are so heavy, ignoring the chips. These lenses are actually two screens," Walker observed as she flipped her pair over, inspecting them further.

Beckman said, "The chip is unexpected. For the temporary downloads, less storage is needed."

Chuck suggested, "Maybe they're for real spies, like Sarah." He took his pair and put them on Walker's face. There was a quiet electronic sound, and her head started moving around.

Casey said, "Great, moron." He waved his hand in front of Walker's face "You've given her an Intersect update."

The skinny man's brow wrinkled in concern. Then his face transformed into one of determination. He took the other pair of glasses from his fiancée's hands, took a deep breath, and gave her a kiss, before putting that second pair of sunglasses on his face. There was another electronic sound, and then he also phased out. Two downloads were in progress.

Casey could see nothing to do about it now, so he turned to the screen. "We don't know how long this will take. I'm worried that removing the glasses prematurely might do something like cause brain damage. What are your orders, General?"

"Obviously we can't disband this team now. Your orders are to continue as you were before this week. Report anything unusual about their behavior _immediately_. It's even more urgent now. Report all flashes as you normally would. We'll have a meeting at our regular time on Monday morning."

The CIA agent and asset moved their heads around haphazardly from the downloads that were still in progress. The general went on to explain her reasoning. "Bartowski and Walker are still the only two Intersects that are still functioning. I thought they weren't flashing anymore so it would be simpler to not have to deal with the CIA while the NSA continued the research. It would mean fewer agencies would argue. Approvals and appropriations would be easier. It also seemed the most prudent, considering the attacks on the last two Intersect download computers. However, considering the flashes last night were real, we shouldn't let the only two human Intersects out of our control. After this new development with the mysterious delivery, we _definitely_ need to keep an eye on them. We don't know how it might change their Intersect flashes. After whatever is happening to them is over, collect the glasses, and send them in for analysis. After that, keep an eye on the two of them, and keep me informed."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Beckman disconnected with the download still in progress. It was up to him.

The downloads, he presumed they were downloads, continued for over fifteen minutes. Casey wasn't too surprised it took a while because Walker had helped him piece together a timeline of her first download. It was hours. He hoped the update wasn't that long.

After another ten minutes, Walker started to collapse. Casey caught her and eased her into a chair. Waiting for Chuck, he thought about letting him fall; A fall might shock him awake. Then, he thought better of it and caught him, too.

After they both came-to, Casey asked, "How do you feel?"

The idiot analyst enthusiastically exclaimed, "We're updated!" Walker sighed. Bartowski asked in confusion, "What is it?"

She answered, "We still don't know where these came from. Putting them on was _very dangerous_."

Bartowski said, "Who else would know how to design Intersect glasses? And who would send _two_ pairs knowing that we _both_ have Intersects in our heads? If the bad guys knew we both had Intersects, we'd have bigger problems on our hands. It has to be the good guys. I assume Beckman was behind it, but she doesn't want to admit she's keeping the band together. That fuss she made yesterday about dissolving the team was just for show."

The CIA agent looked at the NSA agent and prompted, "Casey?"

"I have orders to immediately report any unusual behavior. In my opinion, she honestly doesn't know who else could produce Intersect glasses."

Walker said, "If someone had to test them, I'm glad you put the glasses on me. The thing I'm most upset about is that you put on the other pair without waiting to see what happened to me."

"We're in this together," the husband-to-be explained and gave the wife-to-be a quick kiss. "What now?"

Casey said, "Our next meeting is at the regular time on Monday. We can do that one at Castle."

Walker said, "Good. Nothing more today. I'd like to get some more sleep. We got less than three hours last night. Chuck, your shift doesn't start until after lunch. These slippers are warm, but I don't wear them to bed. I need my feet warmers."

He nodded, stood, and offered his hand.

Something didn't make sense, so Casey made the mistake of asking for a clarification. "I saw your mission reports before midnight. Why did you stay up afterwards for hours?"

He saw one of the walking computers turn red. "Never mind."

* * *

_**Five minutes later**_

Back in bed with Sarah resting half on Chuck, she asked, "Chuck, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, trying to brush it off.

"We have that rule. No secrets—no lies." She thought for a couple seconds. "This is about the spy will." She could read Chuck well enough that she didn't need to wait for confirmation.

"Yes, I trust you," Sarah said. "Mine is over in the closet. It's in a pocket inside my suitcase, along with a picture of the two of us. Remember when I locked myself away after Thanksgiving? That's when I wrote it. I didn't want to present it to you because you'd want to read it right away, even though a spy will is supposed to read after the spy dies. I'd rather just tell you how I feel about you without getting morbid about it by having you read the letter in front of me."

She tilted up and kissed Chuck on the neck. "We're _always_ staying together. I knew it back then. In a way, what I wrote is a little out-of-date because we were just dating. It doesn't matter because my feelings are the same. I knew then I'd stay with you, even before we were engaged."

Chuck squeezed her closer and kissed the top of her head. Sarah said, "None of that. We're not starting that now. I want to sleep."

Sarah breathed Chuck in and out before continuing. "After my test on the dailies last spring, I had a long discussion with Graham. I made sure he understood I wasn't going on missions without you anymore, and I told him I didn't want you going on dangerous missions with me. The advice in his spy will 'amendment' was about trying to keep me from leaving the CIA completely. He knew that pressuring me wouldn't work, so he was trying to sound accommodating. The one important thing that I didn't share with Beckman and Casey is that Graham confirmed that in official CIA records, Molly is dead, so no one is looking for her. He wouldn't have mentioned that if he didn't have very strong suspicions. Otherwise, there would be no point in saying anything. After that mission in Budapest, he was worried that I'd leave the CIA. He was thankful I downloaded the Intersect because it kept me in the agency. In his last message, he was giving me peace of mind."

Sarah nuzzled into Chuck's neck and said, "I'm still not happy about you hiding the Intersect glasses from me, but right now I've got more important things to do—namely falling asleep with the man I love." She stopped talking and remained attached.

* * *

A/N: In the show, why would they think mysterious glasses from Bryce, a person who had been with trying to infiltrate Fulcrum, were safe? Those weren't a concern, but the Fulcrum test Intersect that Chuck downloaded in "Chuck vs the Suburbs" was a potential problem? Where did Bryce's sunglasses come from? How did he get the intel and encode it?

In this story, Fulcrum doesn't know that Chuck and Sarah downloaded the Intersect or even exist. Beckman really wants to maintain control of future research by keeping the CIA out of it. (This is consistent with the creation of the third Intersect room, seen in "Chuck vs Sarah.") She wants to protect the country and thinks _she's_ the best person to be in charge of that, with respect to the Intersect. She's still creepy, but at least she didn't order for an American citizen to be killed.

What happens in this story now? It skips over Sarah's nemesis. What's next? Not the nemesis's ex. The nemesis's ex is Bryce's ex (i.e. Sarah), and that is covered in another story, "Chuck vs the Nemesis's Ex." Next is Chuck's ex. I'm reminded of "Chuck Vs The Campaign" by ersk4 because of the title of Chapter 7, posted January 2009: "She's Baaaaaack!" The next mini-arc of this story is be 5 chapters.


	5. From Anything

_Published June 24, 2020_

A/N: The previous arc is "The Intersect Couple vs Not Flashing." This one doesn't use the names of stories I posted last year: "Chuck vs the Nemesis's Ex" and "Sarah vs Her Best Friend." Instead, it's "Sarah vs Her Best Friend's Ex." It's five AU chapters, starting around the canon timeline of _Chuck_ 2.6, "Chuck vs the Ex."

Even though this story parallels the early part of season 2, a few things have been skipped. This isn't like a different AU, "Chuck vs His Former Handler" and the early season 2-parallel sequel "Chuck & His Roommate vs the Next Mission." In this one, Bryce is still dead. Sarah has the Intersect, and she was able to show off her actual fiancé at her high school reunion. (The bracelet-as-an-engagement-ring story went over well with those nosy people who asked and believed the person they didn't recognize.) There's no high school reunion in this story, but if you're a Cougars fan, there's the twenty-year reunion one-shot, "Chuck vs Jenny Burton."

On to this chapter. Remember Sarah's job is to protect Chuck _from anything_.

* * *

_**Morning of November 10, 2008**_

Chuck held on for dear life. It was always difficult staying calm with Sarah navigating her Porsche through traffic. It took a month or two for him to get over his nervous reaction to Sarah's "normal driving." Even now, it was still barely comprehensible that a car could do what she made it do in the gridlock that was LA. His woman had almost magical powers when it came to navigating her automobile. It was like the Knight Bus in _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_.

This time was different because the car was not a Porsche. Sarah had used her lips to convince him to give her the keys to this Nerd Herder. The last time she drove a Herder, over a year ago, she didn't even have to use her lips, but it didn't go well. Actually, that last time, he didn't even hand over the keys. She used some spy gadget to get into a locked car and start the engine. At least this time, she convinced him in a more pleasant way.

On their first date, that Herder was destroyed when an NSA agent rammed them with a government, standard-issue, black SUV. That night wasn't what one could call a normal first date, if it should even be called that. On high authority (i.e. Sarah's say-so), it was a date. Initially, it was supposed to be a "get to know the other Intersect" dinner as they waited for Casey, who attacked before they could explain the situation. At the time, Chuck wanted to think of dinner as a date, which is why he tried to be sneaky and pay for the meal. Afterwards, when he tried to ground his delusions, he thought it was just wishful thinking. It turns out that Sarah counted it.

Sarah always told him that she counted all of their cover and mission dates as long as gunfire wasn't involved, sometimes even then. That night counted as their first date regardless, because that's when Sarah realized she wanted to go on more dates with Chuck. If Sarah hadn't explicitly cited it, Chuck wasn't sure it qualified under normal standards. However, being rammed by another car wasn't gunfire, and guns being pulled, but not shot, put that night solidly in the "date" category. Even though it didn't start out as a _date_, it was the start of something.

That night was the last time Sarah had driven a Nerd Herder. It definitely didn't end well for the car. Then again, this was a much different car than the one that never drove again. This Herder's engine maxed out probably forty mph faster, and the suspension system could handle sharper turns and even stairs, something that would have been useful a little over a year ago. If Sarah was annoyed with someone in front of them, she could probably vaporize them with a gadget built into the "Spy Nerd Herder." Chuck didn't know if one was there, but one wouldn't shock him.

He hadn't used the car much since his promotion to assistant manager. Sarah or Casey drove him to work, and he never went out on Nerd Herd jobs. The car remained at the Buy More because what else would the government do with it? The biggest downside was that it's fuel economy was horrible due to the increased weight and super-charged engine. Casey was in charge of keeping it's tank full so no one noticed.

Because Chuck was used to Sarah in a Porsche, he hadn't realized that with her behind the wheel again, he would have flashbacks to that first night. All he could do is trust her and hold on.

Sarah looked briefly at Chuck's white-knuckled grip on his door handle, smirked, and said, "This is your fault. Why are you even going on a Nerd Herd job? You're the assistant manager."

"Skip is doing the schedules as part of his Nerd Herd supervisor responsibilities," Chuck answered. "Lester convinced him to put Jeff and Lester on this job."

"You can't be serious. That's two people to do something you can do by yourself."

"I know. Actually, I have you, so there's two of us."

"I'm not getting a Buy More paycheck."

"You'd still be more useful if you sat in a chair and did nothing but watch. The problem is Jeff and Lester consider themselves 'Mac Artistes'—maybe MS-DOS for Jeff. Neither Macs or old PCs from the 80's are used for temporary networks like the one at the conference. Also, Jeff shouldn't be allowed in an uncontrolled environment without better supervision than Lester."

"Why would Lester volunteer for work?" Sarah asked as she took an exit off the expressway to the Sheraton Universal, which had the conference center.

"I don't know. He probably thought going to a tech conference would be cool, but didn't realize it was for a bio-science conference instead of one for a computer release."

"That doesn't mean _you _have to go. Can't you pull rank?"

Sarah jerked the car to make a turn. The customized Toyota Matrix was small enough to take sharp turns, but Chuck was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to take them at that speed. In a normal Herder, they probably would have gone up on two wheels or tipped to the car's side.

"Skip came to me when he realized the problem," Chuck tried to explain. He had already told a couple or non-gender-specific 'guys' in the Nerd Herd they'd have the day off. I offered to help, and he was thrilled. It's nice to have an excuse to don the uni and get my hands a little dirty.

He continued, "I haven't done this for a long time, but I did stuff like this for years. You didn't have to come."

"After the mysterious Intersect update, you're not going _anywhere _without a bodyguard, preferably me." Sarah stated that with so much certainty, it sounded like it was a directive from Beckman. It wasn't, though. Chuck just knew his bodyguard took her job very seriously.

"You received that update, too," Chuck pointed out.

"But I can handle myself in whatever circumstance I encounter."

"Does that mean Casey isn't shadowing us in a black helicopter?" Chuck looked out the window up at the sky in jest. He only saw the empty sky he expected. "You have to be careful around here in the morning because of traffic helicopters. The sky is full."

Sarah took the last turn into the hotel's parking area. They were there at least fifteen minutes earlier than Chuck had expected when he had to convince his disappointed fiancée to leave the shower with him or they'd be late.

Sarah answered about aerial support. "No, Casey's not there because he's selling grills for his cover. Who knows why anyone would buy those this time of year. Summer is over."

"How do you know his schedule, and I don't? I'm the assistant manager. I thought he had the day off from the Buy More."

Sarah drove into the parking garage and answered, "I was worried Casey would do something like requisition a chopper to hover over the hotel while you and I were here. Just in case, I arranged for Bunny to win a make-over package and suckered Casey into swapping with her, all before Casey knew what was going on. _He_ actually asked _me_ to serve as your protection."

"How did you… Never mind. This isn't because you didn't want me to go away from the plaza without you, is it?" Chuck asked.

Sarah's face held a little grin as she admitted, "I didn't say that."

* * *

Chuck finished setting up a 10BASE-T network for the conference's attendees, making Sarah a little proud. They were done a half-hour early. He claimed it was because he used her to help lay cable, so he didn't have to run back and forth as much.

She hadn't known the Buy More Nerd Herd did stuff like conferences, because it wasn't consumer electronics. He said it was because he helped the conference organizer with a nasty computer virus a couple years back. _Of course_, that meant a lot of the reason they were there was because Chuck had previously done a good job and regularly went above and beyond. Chuck's on-site call wasn't just about saving the public from two sleazy Buy Morons. People wanted _Chuck_. If they couldn't get him, they wanted his store. In this case, they were lucky to get him anyway.

Chuck shook the hand of Lonnie, the person in charge of the conference's check-in desk. Chuck said to Sarah, "I'm ready to go."

Sarah said back, "We'll even get back by 10, not that I get any people at the Orange Orange until 12:30 or so, but that's before the Buy More opens. The next time we do something like this, should I wear a Nerd Herd outfit."

Sarah saw Chuck's mind blank out for a few seconds as his imagination ran wind. He eventually stammered a response. "What? Uh? I thought you didn't mind helping."

"That's not it at all. I was happy to help you." Sarah looked down briefly at the white jeans and the baby blue hoodde of her Orange Orange uniform. "The CIA should probably put together a Nerd Herd uniform for me. The Castle wardrobe is still sparse, but it should have something like that. It would help me blend in. If one hasn't been added by the next time I go on an offsite install with you, I could borrow something out of Anna's locker."

"Wouldn't that be a little small?"

"Are you calling me fat?" Sarah almost winked, but she held back.

It worked. Chuck was totally flummoxed, one of those things that made him even cuter to her. "No. I just mean she's short, and you're tall."

"But her skirts are long enough for me, and I could tie off a white, button-down shirt."

At this point, Sarah didn't keep in the teasing smile. There was no point, as Chuck's face was a shade of crimson. She knew exactly what he was imagining.

"Are you trying to get me back into the Nerd Herd…to supervise." The both wore silly grins after he said that. It was a good thing the job was done. The could go someplace private.

Chuck changed the topic and said, "Quick, under the table."

"We aren't going under the table. It doesn't even have a front. If we hurry back, we can take advantage of that supply closet in Castle. There are no cameras inside, and Casey never goes there because I've claimed it."

Sarah suddenly realized Chuck was too adverse to PDA to suggest going at it under the table. He was concerned about a threat, not suggesting fun-time. She wasn't going to hide, though. It didn't look like he flashed, but she'd take out whatever threat he saw.

Chuck turned so his back was toward the conference goers out in the main lobby. Sarah scanned the large entrance hall to search for possible danger. One woman looked a little familiar, but no one looked like the normal types of threats she'd deal with on missions. That woman started over to their table.

Chuck was being silly, so Sarah decided to take care of this herself. She had been a Nerd Herd assistant all morning despite the lack of a uniform. She might as well act like she was there for something other than providing security for a highly valued CIA analyst or staring at her guy's backside.

"Good morning. Do you need help? Are you having problems getting on the Internet?" Sarah maintained a cheerful demeanor, but her stomach sunk. Something was very wrong. The brunette woman in glasses _definitely_ looked familiar. It couldn't be _her_, though.

The conference attendee said, "Is there someone who can help with the tech requirements for my lecture?"

Sarah barely understood why the Nerd Herd was there, other than Chuck being a great guy. She was fairly certain the job didn't extend to answering _all_ technical questions. "We're just here to set up the network and were about to leave. Maybe the man with the conference can help you. His name's Lonnie…" It _had_ to be her. Sarah stuck on the name, "Jill."

The woman's eyes widened in shock. "Do I know you? How do you know who I am?"

Chuck had been standing next to Sarah behind the table with his back still turned away from _Jill_. Sarah grabbed his hand down at their sides before he could run off. She told The Ex, "We've never met, but I've seen pictures in one of my roommate's photo albums."

This didn't clear up the confusion. "I don't understand. Who's your roommate?"

"My fiancé's sister, Ellie Bartowski."

"Your fiancé's sister… That would mean you're engaged to…" Sarah used her hand to spin Chuck around. Jill finished, "Chuck Bartowski." An obviously artificial smile appeared on Jill's face. It wasn't supposed to be obvious but it was to Sarah because she had a lifetime of reading people. Then again, maybe Jill's smile never looked genuine. In either case, it was fake.

Sarah looked over to Chuck whose own smile was a nervous attempt at being polite, since there no longer was a point of hiding under the table. He raised his free hand and gave a little wave. "Hi, Jill."

The only way to make a situation more awkward than an encounter between the long-term ex—someone who didn't stand by her man when he was falsely accused—and the former boyfriend, was for the encounter to be in front of the financée. There was nothing to worry about, though. For missions, Sarah had flirted with corrupt military leaders who were responsible for countless deaths. She never figured she'd talk to _evil incarnate._ (That was Ellie's name for her.) However, Sarah had been taking control of conversations since selling fake cookies when she was in grade school. She knew that she had a lifetime of experience that made her ideal for rescuing Chuck from the situation. She just could draw a knife.

"Sorry, to surprise you like that." She put out her hand to shake Jill's. "I'm Sarah Walker. Nice to meet you." Sarah managed to keep the air quotes around "nice" out of her voice. "You two know each other, of course."

Jill shook her hand. It was a weak handshake, which didn't surprise Sarah, based on what she knew of the woman. A couple months ago, Casey went on a soapbox tirade about dishrag handshakes. He had no reason to hear ammunition from this encounter. He wouldn't be able to restrain himself from harassing them. It was better to not share some things with her NSA partner.

Jill tried to sound pleasant, but Sarah detected the strained sound of what she said. "You live with Chuck's sister. Is that how you two met?"

Sarah would have to keep her _full_ thoughts to herself. Dealing with this woman wasn't a mission, but she'd had a lifetime of training in limiting what the other person heard. So far, so good. The shank _should_ know how badly she screwed up when she let Chuck go, even if it meant rubbing a tiny bit in her face. Sarah was human, It wouldn't be as much as she _deserved_, but Chuck didn't like the site of blood.

Sarah thought, _Yes. I'm Ellie's maid-of-honor and live with Chuck and an awesome heart surgeon that are part of my family. Ellie skipped over large sections of the photo album because you and Bryce were in the pictures. I only saw them because I sneaked a peek a few hours later._ Instead, she said, "I've lived with Chuck, Ellie and her fiancé since the beginning of the year."

Sarah realized even that might have been too much. It included details an "enemy" didn't need to know. She did manage to keep out the part about how Ellie and she were going to be in each other's weddings. It would have unnecessarily mean to say that she and Ellie were close friends to someone whom Ellie never liked, even when Chuck and Jill had been dating a year. On balance, it was ok.

Chuck found his voice, "Jill, what have you been up to?"

Jill brushed her hair behind her ears. Sarah knew that move. It had two possible purposes. One was to flirt and the other was to buy time. That first reason would be tacky in front of the future wife and also tasteless considering what Jill did to Chuck. Either Jill was an awful person, or she was getting ready to lie. Or both. The brunette answered, "Uh, well, after Stanford, I got my PhD in Biomedical Engineering."

"Did you?"

"I'm giving a presentation on infectious diseases," Jill said with a smile. A _smile._ Sarah _really_ didn't like the harpy, who apparently _liked_ infectious diseases. Sarah knew how to maintain an act, though, and continued to display a pleasant demeanor.

"Lovely," Chuck uncomfortably said. Sarah wasn't sure what else _could_ be said.

"And you?" Jill inquired to him. "Besides this," she added pointing between Sarah and Chuck, meaning she wanted to know something other than how happy the two of them were together.

"And me? Uh, still in the computer game. You know?" Chuck started to ramble.

Sarah bailed him out by telling the truth. Her dad taught her that bigger lies were easier to believe, but experience taught her carefully selecting actual truth was less likely to back-fire. With Chuck, the lie was one of omission, not bragging about how his head held the government's most valuable intelligence. She might have it too, but Chuck was better at flashing, making him the most valuable.

In her opinion, the non-top secret part of the truth was also great, and that wasn't classified. Being the hero of Burbank wasn't a big deal to some people, but it was to the people of Burbank, and it was to her. "Chuck's assistant manager at the Burbank Buy More. He and I have been dating for over a year. Engaged since last Christmas."

At first, Jill looked like she didn't didn't know what to say. She looked at Chuck and said, "You're still at the Buy More?"

Sarah thought, _Yeah, the same place he started working when you should have been loyally staying at his side after Bryce framed him._ Chuck looked practically shocked by the fact that this conversation was happening, so she replied for him while linking her arm through his. She proudly said, "Chuck keeps the place standing."

"That's great," Jill said with a smile. Sarah could tell she didn't mean it. "Assistant manager. I always knew you would make something of yourself." Sarah detected a little bit of snobbish judgement. "You didn't let what happened at Stanford hold you back. Maybe you'll be the manager soon."

That last comment was said directly at her. Jill probably thought that Sarah didn't know about Stanford, it might be a sore spot, and Sarah was disappointed in Chuck. Jill was actually trying to get under her skin about the fact that Chuck _didn't_ own his own computer business or something. Sarah said, "I know all about what happened. Actually, I knew _Bryce_ better than you ever did." Jill knew Bryce for a longer period of time, but Sarah _actually_ dated him, not just slept with him. She wasn't proud of it, but it's not like she cheated on her wonderful boyfriend to be with that prima donna and traitor.

As confused as she was at the beginning of this encounter, Jill said, "You know Bryce?"

_Oops._ Sarah opened that door, so she needed to close it. "Yes, I _knew_ him. Bryce and I worked together and dated for over a year, before I knew Chuck. Bryce wasn't a good boyfriend. I'm so much happier with this guy." She playfully bumped Chuck's hip with her own. "After Bryce _died_, definitive proof came out that he framed Chuck."

Jill's face was frozen as Chuck's had been. "I didn't know Bryce died. That's awful."

Sarah personally didn't see what was so awful about a traitor being shot after he murdered someone, but she couldn't say _that_. She was tempted to wait for Jill to say something about how it was good that Chuck was cleared, though she suspected that would never come. Sarah was a little upset with herself for letting this conversation get this far, so she had to find a way to cut it short. Before she could devise a conversation exit strategy, a man joined them at the table. That's when a flash hit.

"We're running late," the man said to Jill.

Fortunately, Jill and the other man didn't see the flash because they were looking at each other. Chuck noticed though. She had to learn how to manage flashes in public. Chuck reassured her by squeezing her arm three times—their private message.

Jill introduced them, "Oh, Guy. Uh, this is my old friend Chuck Bartowski and his… girlfriend, Sarah…"

"Walker," Sarah finished. Girlfriend… fiancée… The title didn't matter as long as it was clear she was the person intending to spend the rest of her life with Chuck. Coming from Jill, though, Sarah suspected the lessening of her and Chuck's relationship was deliberate.

Jill continued, "Chuck, Sarah, this is my boss, Guy LaFleur."

"Hi, nice to meet you." Chuck stuck out his hand. Guy didn't take it.

"I work with germs, so you know."

That was rude. Sarah expected everyone at an event like this to shake a lot of hands. If they were concerned, they'd carry one of those tiny Purell bottles. It was also clear that Jill was more than Guy's employee. She smiled at him, but it didn't look genuine—more like how Carina acted around a mark, admittedly in a less slutty way. That wasn't to say Jill was better at it than Carina. Carina was just that way.

Whatever Jill and Guy's relationship was, it was something more than boss/employee. Jill took his arm, reassuring Guy that she was with _him_. First, she had claimed Sarah was just a girlfriend. Then she flaunted her (probably secret) relationship. It was like her reunion all over again. She was fairly certain half the couples she talked to were not really engaged and those people didn't believe she was.

Guy said, "I'm sure your friend's busy, has, uh, computers to fix." Great. French accent. Casey would have a field day with that when he read the post-flash reports that had to be written.

Chuck looked in her direction, tightened his lips, moved his eyes to Jill and Guy. Yes. They both had flashed on Guy. She should have assumed because he always did. He probably recovered faster than she did. They needed to do something before Jill and Guy walked off.

Sarah though maybe a computer reason would work, because Jill came over with a tech question. Sarah said, "I think we're done here, but Chuck's the expert. What else do we need to do?"

Chuck followed up with, "Jill, you said you needed help with your presentation's tech requirements." Sarah was really happy that Chuck followed her lead.

"Actually, I don't have the presentation until the day after tomorrow."

Sarah wondered why Jill came over at all if her presentation wasn't that day. They needed a new way to keep talking to them and to try to find out more about Guy, so she said, "It's too bad we have to cut this short. It might be over five years until the next time you see each other. _I know._ We should go on a double date." Chuck's hand became a sweaty death-grip.

"What? No. Guy's only my boss. We aren't—"

Sarah didn't let her try to brush it off. "It's ok. I know the signs. I told you I dated Bryce while we worked together. We didn't have to hide it, but something like that is obvious to me. Double date. How about it? I know a great French restaurant." She looked to Chuck for back-up. They never went out for French, so she hoped he would pick up on the impromptu mission setting and go with it.

"Oh, yeah. That place is fantastic." Sarah was thrilled Chuck had caught the thread. "You should really come. It'd give us a chance to catch up."

_Good job, Chuck_, she thought. "When I knew Bryce, I didn't know to ask him about what Chuck was like in college. I didn't even know a great guy like Chuck _existed_ then. His sister always tells me about how he was when he was twelve, but you know more recent history." She said directly to Guy, "Et le restaurant est très magnifique."

Hearing his own language caught the Frenchman completely off-guard and had the desired effect of snaring his attention. "Why not? It has to be better than room service. This way Jill and Chuck can talk about old times while Sarah and I hear some entertaining old stories."

Everyone shared polite agreement that it was a good idea. Before Jill and Guy left, Chuck said he'd get their room and phone numbers from their registrations. Since he was working on the computer network for the conference, he had easy access. Sarah figured he wasn't supposed to, but they wouldn't know for certain, and that's what a good field analyst would do.

Chuck didn't say a word about the conversation that had just happened until they were back sitting in the Nerd Herder. "I can't believe we are actually going on a double date with Jill and her boyfriend."

Sarah justified the invite. "We flashed on Guy. What else were we supposed to do to find out more about him?"

"How did you figure out she's his boyfriend?"

"Are you saying people who work together can't be dating?" Sarah raised her eyebrow. After all, Chuck and she worked together.

"What? No. Of course not. We're special though. We weren't officially dating _until _we were co-workers—not just asset and handler. It's not like Jill's a spy, though, and Guy's her boss. I suppose simply being he's her boss doesn't mean that she has to hate him, but I'd think it means she wouldn't be dating him."

Chuck hadn't picked up on what Sarah had seen, but she didn't want to explain it. That type of thing was obvious to her before college. Instead, she shared her strong suspicion. "She's probably sleeping with him to get ahead at work."

"What? How did you get that?"

Sarah gave him a flat look before turning her head back to the road as she steered the car across three lanes.

"Right. Spy. You know, I can't pick up those kinds of signals very well. Otherwise we would have been practicing our 'cover' weeks earlier."

Sarah smiled a little, grabbed Chuck's hand between them, and brought it to her lips for a quick kiss. It was too bad they had work to do—Chuck with a shift lasting all afternoon, and her supervising the setup of the fake restaurant for the double date mission. Sometimes work took priority over fun. At least working with Chuck, she got to go home with him afterwards.

* * *

A/N: The idea of a double date is a large part of what inspired this sequel to _Chuck & Sarah vs Trust._

In the show, Sarah wore a Nerd Herd outfit a week earlier, during the events of "Chuck vs Tom Sawyer." This time Sarah came over to have lunch with Chuck, and she got very suspicious when she heard someone was walking around the store asking about Jeff. She doesn't mess around when it comes to people in the radius of her future husband, so they took the terrorist leader into custody before the Team Intersects needed to go to Atari. If you want more of a plot than that, read "Chuck & His Roommate vs the Next Mission," which goes a different way in its chapter 5. While you read, this story's Chuck and Sarah have to get ready for a double date.

Song: "Pumpin' for Jill" by Iggy Pop. (The show is _Chuck_ not _Jill_. She should at least get a song. Otherwise, since the Nerd Herd doesn't have an official theme, it wold be something like "Sara," by Starship, because she's the one that went on going on the job with the title character.)


	6. Double Rancard Un

_Published June 25, 2020_

A/N: Really? Yes, really.

The chapter title? "Double Date One" (think French)

In the show, Chuck and Sarah had double dates with Morgan/Carina, Ellie/Devon, and Casey/Gertrude. It's time for Jill/Guy.

* * *

_**Evening of November 10, 2008**_

Sarah stood in the living room in a red, narrow-strapped dress with high block books, waiting for Chuck to finish getting ready. It was less conservative than Sarah's normal look and would probably make her guy's eyes bug out, but she liked it when that happened. Also, the boots helped conceal a small gun.

Ellie came home through the front door behind her. "Hi, Sarah. That outfit looks great on you. Of course everything does. Where are you going?" Not waiting for an answer, Ellie followed up with a friendly remark about Sarah's attire, ignoring the fact that the fishnet stockings looked like Sarah was being paid by the hour, "You know we go out as two couples, I never see you in the same dress twice. I don't know how you fit everything in that closet."

Sarah smiled, but didn't fabricate an answer. She felt almost sorry for the other woman. The hospital had a locker, not virtually unlimited closet space, like Castle.

Chuck walked out from the back wearing his blue new suit with a blue button-down and a tie with narrow stripes. "Chuck, that suit looks expensive." Ellie amended her initial question. "Where are you _two_ going on your big date?"

Chuck hesitated. He looked like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to lie to his sister and come up with a cover story. Sarah figured there was no way hiding the situation forever, so she finally answered. "We're going on a double date—only not with you and Devon this time."

Ellie said, "Of course we can't go on a double with you tonight. Devon has the night shift. Please tell me you're not going out with Morgan and your friend again. It's been over a year, and Morgan still talks about her. The other day, he asked if Devon and I had set a wedding date so he could bring her as his plus one. Despite it being so long, he thinks he'll have a chance with her months from now. For some reason, knowing a date as soon as possible is important."

Sarah knew there was no way a spy could plan that far in advance for a date. If she had a normal assignment, she'd have to pull some strings to make sure she got time off to be Ellie's maid-of-honor. It helped having a long-term assignment in which protecting the brother-of-the-bride was her job. As far as the government was concerned, she'd be doing her job.

Since Morgan didn't know about Carina being a spy, he must have talked to the red-head that he hadn't since last fall, and she probably told him to tell her a date. That would mean she was still stringing him along. Sarah would have to have a talk with the DEA agent. Sure, Morgan could be annoying, but he was a good guy who didn't deserve to be strung along by someone who was never going to settle down with him, or settle down with anyone. Anna was a mistake, but there was a better match for Morgan out there. If someone else came into the picture, it wouldn't be fair to Morgan to have him holding on for something that had no future.

To Ellie, Sarah said, "We're going on a double date with Chuck's ex, Jill, and her boyfriend."

"What!?"

"Jill Roberts," just came out, though she doubted there was another Jill who would inspire any reaction close to that.

"No, no, no. No. Absolutely not."

Chuck tried to calm things down. "It's like if you ran into your ex-boyfriend, Doug Wald, and you went to dinner to catch up."

"No. It's _not _the same," Ellie argued back. "There's no scenario in which you go to dinner with the girl that dumped you and slept with your best friend. You bought a new suit? And you're subjecting Sarah to this dinner?"

That was a little harsh. Sarah had slept with Bryce, and he was no comparison to Chuck. For that, Jill should be pitied a little. Although how she treated Chuck meant she deserved none. She thought Morgan had always been The description didn't make sense. Morgan was Chuck's best friend, not Bryce. She figured Ellie must have meant "best" not "Best."

Sarah told Ellie, "Chuck is not 'subjecting' me to anything. That's not a new suit just for tonight. A few weeks ago, I went with him to get a couple custom-tailored suits. This is the first chance he's had to wear one. I think he looks great—very dapper."

That had been completely true. She just left out the part that they were tailored for Chuck by the CIA and that the suits had a special protective layer. They weren't bullet-proof, but the coats should protect him from most knives. In reality, that didn't matter because Chuck wasn't getting stabbed with her around. It made Beckman happier about his safety. Since the protection was pointless, Sarah cared more about how sexy her fiancé looked wearing them.

Sarah went on to explain to Ellie how it happened, skipping over the flash reason for the evening. "Chuck filled in on a Nerd Herd call this morning at a bio-science conference. I had the morning free so I went with him. While there, this woman came over to ask a question. I recognized her as Jill. We met her boyfriend who was also at the conference. Since we didn't have a chance to talk more, _I_ asked them to go with us to dinner tonight."

Ellie wasn't satisfied. "I don't want Chuck to go through that again, and don't think you deserve to be subjected to her. What I don't understand is how you recognized Jill. When I showed you the photo album, I skipped over the pages from the Jill years."

"I noticed. I wanted to know more about Chuck, so I pulled out the album later and looked at what I missed." Sarah threaded her fingers through Chuck's hair as she said, "College-aged Chuck was still cute. I figured out the woman in the pictures had to be Jill." Sarah also saw the pictures of Chuck with the dead traitor.

"Don't worry, Ellie." Chuck joked, "If it comes to it. I'm pulling for Sarah. Westside is not the closest hospital to the restaurant, so none of your friends at work will have to treat the other woman."

Ellie looked at her brother. "What?" The joke didn't land, probably because Ellie didn't know Sarah was a CIA agent, meaning she didn't know that if Jill tried anything, she legitimately might get hurt.

Chuck kept going. "Sarah could take her so easily—if it ever came to that—which it won't, of course."

Ellie finally got the joke, though not for the right reason. "Ha, ha. No offense, Sarah. I know you're incredibly fit, but you still shouldn't mess with that woman. For all we know, Jill might have been training in Taekwondo for the last five years."

That comment confirmed Ellie didn't understand how that hypothetical situation was funny from the standpoint of it being so lopsided the other way. Chuck stuck up for his woman. "Sarah, could still take her easily."

Ellie pursed her mouth and said to Chuck, "No need to go into this expecting the worst. Just because Sarah's had a self-defense class—"

Chuck failed to hold in an abrupt laugh.

Ellie looked to Sarah, "What's so funny? Sarah, you have taken a self-defence class, haven't you? If not, someone who looks like you should."

Sarah simply said, "I've taken something like that." Her training was never really "defense," but that description was close enough for most people to understand. She tried to give Chuck a look to shut it down. This conversation had already gone too far.

Ellie didn't know to drop it, though, and kept warning them of a scenario that wasn't any concern. "Sarah, I know we're talking about a fantasy here, and of course I'd want you to win in some hypothetical smack-down, but I also don't want you to get hurt. You never know. Jill could have a black belt."

"Just one?" Chuck said. He hadn't picked up on Sarah's earlier silten cue to stop.

Ellie gave Chuck a "yeah, right" look. She then looked over to Sarah. Sarah didn't see much of a point of hiding her training completely anymore. This was the woman she shared a home with. It's not like the doctor needed to know the type or full extent of Sarah's CIA _and_ _pre-CIA_ training. Sarah had heard Devon, Mr. Awesome Fit himself, make some observations about Sarah's workouts being extreme for him. Some more had to come out sometime.

Ellie saw Sarah's confident expression, and her face dropped in shock. Ellie looked back to Chuck and asked, "Are you implying Sarah has more than one black belt?"

It was too late to rewind this entire conversation, but at least Chuck didn't continue without looking for Sarah's guidance. Sarah trusted him to stay away from the flash reason for the double date, so she nodded for him to answer. Chuck said, "Sarah didn't say she had self _defense_. I honestly don't know how many martial arts she knows…"

"Wow." Ellie looked back to Sarah for some kind of confirmation.

It's not like she was going to say she had earned three black belts during summers while she was still in college, only stopping when she went into the field. Instead, she hedged. Sarah said, "I haven't worked on advancing any belts in a few years." Sparring yesterday with Casey was keeping in fighting shape, not practice to advance to higher degrees.

With wide eyes, Ellie said, "Ok. Well, it's good to know who's going to save us if someone breaks-in to steal Chuck's computer again."

Chuck let out a laughing snort. Sarah was definitely going to have to talk to him. It didn't matter that _she_ was the person who broke in last time. With the two of them flashing again after the Intersect update, he couldn't blow their cover to his sister simply because he couldn't hold in a laugh.

Ellie didn't catch the subtlety of that snort. She directed her next question straight at Sarah. "I still don't understand why you would want to spend an evening with _Jill_."

Sarah calmly explained, "I thought this would be a way to find out about Chuck before I knew him from someone who didn't slant things from the view of a sister or a Best Friend." Sarah linked her arm through Chuck's and bumped his hip. "Jill made the mistake of letting my Chuck get away. I'm _never_ doing that because he's _mine_. I almost feel sorry for her."

When disregarding the flash reason for the double date, that story was true. The worst thing about Bryce being dead was Sarah couldn't ask him about college-aged Chuck. Spy or not, she could always read Bryce so she'd know if the stories were true.

"I don't see why that justifies having a meal with _Jill _and her boyfriend, but… you'll see."

"It's with Jill and her boss," Chuck said.

"Of course she's dating her boss. What a creep. I don't know whether it's worse that he's dating someone who reports to him or that he's dating _Jill_."

Sarah said, "We don't know much about him. I didn't get a 'creep' read." She had flashed, but a flash didn't necessarily mean creep. "He's French, and I haven't used that in a while—"

"You know French?"

Oops, all of her skills were coming out. That one was her fault, not Chuck's. "I studied some in college." The fact she knew a foreign language was a safe detail. It's not as if she was about to pull out one of the knives from her thigh holster to demonstrate her throwing ability.

Ellie seemed to switch back and forth between her anger at the mention of Jill and her amazement at her maid-of-honor's skill set. "I don't even know where you went to school. You know what? We'll go out for drinks next weekend. Tonight, I don't expect you to have fun, but try not to kill someone. Hopefully, the food is good," she teased.

* * *

Sarah drove around the block a third time. They were early for the double date/mission. She thought the only thing good about the conversation with Ellie was it made sure they weren't even earlier. Apparently, it didn't help enough.

Chuck asked, "Why are we going in circles? You can't be lost. You have that electronic map mounted on your dash."

Sarah turned the screen so Chuck we see it was more than a map. After the planning session that afternoon, Casey had arranged it so Guy and Jill's taxi from the hotel to the restaurant would be NSA. In her opinion, it was a little overkill, but it was the type of thing she had come to expect from that agency, With their targets' location available, she wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to make sure she and Chuck didn't arrive a lot earlier than the marks. Using the tracker, she could time their arrival, rather than wait in a restaurant full of agents.

Chuck broke down and apologized for what had been bothering him. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"There's nothing to be sorry about."

"I just think you're so amazing, and the idea of your breaking Jill in half is _really_ funny. In my head, there's a soundtrack like a Looney Tunes cartoon."

Sarah raised her eyebrow and glanced towards Chuck. "You didn't break our CIA cover. With my morning jogs, the conversation was bound to go there sometime. Devon's has called it 'awesome' three or four times, and that's only the times I've heard. My concealer is good, but living with two doctors, there could be minor signs they'd detect someday. We should probably lay the groundwork that I'm taking advanced classes."

"But not say that you would be _teaching_ them at the local CIA office. Right?"

She wouldn't be teaching there. It shouldn't be general knowledge that an active CIA field officer was stationed in the US. Admittedly, Chuck's faith in her was nice. "We'll work out the cover details later. For tonight, I really need you to trust me and follow my lead."

"Of course I trust you. I trust you know how to manipulate the situation so we can find out why we flashed. I trust you to cover the French parts of the evening so I don't get snail. Your tongue is really talented, and this time I only mean in languages." Sarah glared at Chuck. "I promise to stop the innuendo. Just know that if it comes to it, I'm rooting for you. Even if I say something that might be interpreted as rooting for Jill, that's because I don't want you to go too far and blow our cover. I trust you not to _intentionally_ kill her."

A small smile broke out of Sarah's glare. "As long as she's not a threat to you and not an enemy of this country, she's safe." The real-time map showed Guy and Jill were arriving at the restaurant in a few minutes, so she drove to the restaurant's valet stand.

Chuck and Sarah were at the table less than a minute when their dinner companions arrived, escorted by one of the fake employee agents, none other than John Casey. He somehow got out of working the bar. She had no doubt the chef was another plant, but she hoped the agent had skills.

Jill and Guy had barely sat down when the waiter arrived to take their drink orders. Jill said, "If you don't mind, Guy has this. He's great at picking out the best wines."

Guy looked at the wine list for a minute, and said under his breath. "I guess this will have to do. Wine production hasn't been very good the last few years. Some of these choices are from Napa Valley, which isn't French. I suppose we shouldn't expect to find some of the best selections since we aren't actually in France."

Sarah held herself back from calling him on in. She knew the CIA had a wine expert design that part of the menu. The bottles to a couple of the top French wine labels were the last things that were ready in the fake restaurant. Acquisition was a challenge. Getting the wine took a couple more hours than putting up a fake website and posting fake reviews. One of the reasons it took a while is because they got an award-winner bottled in southern France. The California selections were to fill out the list. Any claim that the top choices were barely acceptable was pretentious and simply not true.

Sarah took charge of steering the conversation to their flash target. "Guy, how long have you been in the United States?" She knew the answer from the background report she read earlier: just over two years—a few weeks before Jill graduated with her PhD. She was the first person working for him. She had asked the question because it was better to let marks tell their own story to get them to open up.

"Oh, a couple years. There are times when I miss Paris, but I get back twice a year. I'm here because the work we do to control the spread of infectious diseases is very important. This is where I can do that."

Sarah looked briefly at Jill. The other woman was hanging on every word for something she should already know. Sarah recognized the artificial way it was designed to make someone think she was interested. Sarah knew how to mock interest like that after her seduction class at the farm. Actually, she knew before that, but that class is where she formally learned all the techniques that different people could use. Jill's interest didn't look real.

Sarah wondered how Chuck could ever like someone so fake. No wonder he took so long to believe Sarah was really interested in him, beyond their initial cover relationship. Jill was his standard, she betrayed him, and she was probably fake the entire time, without him knowing. Sarah thought maybe she hadn't been affectionate enough while managing a cover in which she couldn't get too close even though she wished it wasn't a cover. The real problem was trust. Chuck believed his past girlfriend's act and later discovered it wasn't really love. He didn't trust the real thing.

Jill asked, "How did you two meet?"

For the mission, they needed Guy to talk more, but Chuck and Sarah had to share some of themselves to get him to share more about himself.

Chuck started, "Well, um, a year ago—"

"418 days ago," Sarah clarified. They all stared at her.

Chuck restated with a smile, "418 days ago. Sarah, why don't you tell it?"

"Sure. 418 days ago, I walked into the Burbank Buy More to get my broken phone fixed. Chuck was in charge of Nerd Herd support back then, and he's the person that saved my day. I also saw him boost the self esteem of a little girl and save her father's marriage."

"I didn't know that she saw all of that, but it was love at first sight," her fiancé added.

"Actually, it was for _one_ of us." Sarah tilted her head to point at Chuck when she said "Not the other." Chuck frowned, and Sarah winked before continuing. "I left my phone number, but Chuck never called."

"I thought she was out of my league."

"It was the other way around. He's only confirmed it every day since that day. I was in town to take care of something Bryce left for Chuck—I was sort of his executor." She wasn't the _executioner_. That was Casey. But Bryce did leave an email for Chuck, and she had gone to Burbank because of that. The cover story was close enough. "I stopped by Chuck's place later that day." _To steal his computer_. "We went out the next evening, and we've been inseparable ever since."

Jill said, "I'm so happy you landed on your feet, Chuck. It's horrible what Bryce did to you, but at least he cleared you when he died."

"Not by choice," Sarah said. "He actually was trying to blame Chuck for more things." _He put a bullseye on Chuck's back. The government sent two assassins because they thought Chuck worked with Bryce and was an enemy of this country._ "It never made sense to me. I worked with Bryce and even dated him, and from that, I knew not to trust him. One fortunate thing about him dying is that he led me to Chuck. Chuck was cleared when there was an investigation _after_ Bryce's death. Bryce had stolen from the company, and more was discovered when they went back further."

Jill looked genuinely surprised. Sarah determined Jill must have slept with Bryce because she actually believed the man who had said Chuck cheated. The surprise on her face was not the look of someone who was in on it or knew what happened. She was simply a bad girlfriend who didn't believe her man and responded by _cheating_ _on him. _Sarah knew enough of the timeline to know Chuck and Jill hadn't officially broken up even when Chuck was kicked out. Their relationship was not over until Chuck spilled his heart out to her weeks later when he went back to campus to see her.

"At least you two are together now." Jill looked at Sarah's hand and wrinkled her brow. "I thought you said you're engaged."

"We are," Sarah confirmed.

"Is the ring being cleaned or something?"

Chuck laughed. "No. It's not like that episode of _Friends_. She's wearing it and won't let me buy her another one."

Neither Jill nor Guy knew what that meant. Sarah supposed the normal thing would be to wear an engagement ring on her finger, but she loved the silver circle she wore all of the time around her wrist. She held her wrist up to show her bracelet. "Chuck gave this to me last year for Christmas. I got so excited my man gave me jewelry, I thought it was a proposal. This overreaction was in front of Morgan and Ellie. You know how Morgan can be."

Guy liked the story, but Jill was still confused. She looked to Chuck, "Morgan? That weird little friend you had years ago? He's still around?"

Sarah answered for him, "Yes. The same Morgan. He's as good as family. Anyway, Chuck and I sorted it out and decided then and there to be engaged with this loop around my wrist."

"So you're really engaged? When's the big day?" Jill asked, almost sounding interested. To Sarah's trained ear, it still sounded a tiny bit forced, but maybe that was regret slipping in. For the mission, they needed to get the conversation back to Guy, but some of this had to be explained to get it out of the way so they could that about the person that was the mission objective without it seeming odd. They had all dinner to bring the focus back to their flash target.

"We're not setting one until after Ellie's big day. Chuck and I are promised to each other, so a wedding is just a statement in front of a bunch of people. We already said it in front of everyone that matters." _Ellie, Devon, and Morgan. Then Casey. No one else is cleared to know that big guy's my partner, but he's important. Then my mom. No one except Chuck knows she exists. As far as the government is concerned, my assignment to stay with the other Intersect is stronger than a marriage certificate, so they don't care.  
_

Jill put her fingers under a couple charms to look. "This definitely is a 'unique' engagement ring, but it's beautiful. Chuck already got you all of these charms?"

"No. He only gave me one in the spring. The rest were his mom's. There's one on here for Ellie's birth and another for Chuck's."

"Chuck gave you his mom's charm bracelet? How sweet!" A petty little part of Sarah was thrilled Jill never got the family heirloom. They had to get back to discussing Guy, though.

The waiter presented the wine. Guy played into the big decanting production. Jill said with pride, "Guy's family owns a vineyard in southern France." That explained the snooty attitude was more than him simply being French. He had been looking over the list for _his_ family's label. He might have wanted to find it, but Sarah was glad it hadn't come up in the research. Having that on the menu might have been too obvious that this night was a setup.

Jill ordered a bowl of leaves, otherwise known as a salad with a snooty name. Chuck ordered for Sarah: a rare steak—just how she liked. French restaurants tended to cook less, which was fine for her. Sarah spoke French to ordered for Chuck. Guy was impressed with Sarah's use of his language and ordered the fish. When the waiter left, Guy spoke French, complimenting Sarah's lack of accent. Her attempt to get Guy reengaged in the conversation had worked.

Unfortunately, Guy's cell phone rang, and he excused himself from the table.

Jill resumed her interrogation, trying to find a flaw in Chuck's life by poking at Sarah. "So Sarah, you've been in California a little over a year. I bet the traffic is still a nightmare."

Chuck defended her. "Not at all. Sarah drives better than a native. She drives fast, but she's never been stopped by the police."

Sarah figured corrupt police overseas shouldn't count. That was when she was driving within the local laws, trying _not_ to be noticed, but they were shaking down foreigners. She had never been stopped in the US, including LA, so that was mostly true.

Guy came back to the table and apologized because he and Jill had to leave. There went the mission. Jill asked why they had to go, then looked at her buzzing cell phone. "Looks like I got a text message." Chuck caught a peek, and Sarah saw the signs of Chuck flashing. He covered by coughing and drinking a sip of water.

_Oh no. First Guy. Now a text for Jill._ They had two flash targets now, who were getting up to leave. They need to talk some more so she and Chuck could maybe find out why they flashed. Sarah motioned for the waiter. Speaking French, she explained the situation and that the order should be cancelled. Yet again, Guy was impressed with Sarah's fluency.

The four walked out the front of the restaurant and gave their claim tickets to the valet. Guy said to Sarah, "If I didn't know better, I would think you are from France. Did you grow up there, or maybe study abroad?"

"No. I've spent some time in Warsaw, Budapest, and Madrid, but that was after college. I used to travel internationally a lot for work, so I've been to Paris briefly a couple times."

Jill said, "I thought you worked at a yogurt store."

Sarah and Chuck hadn't told Jill her cover job. She wore the uniform to the conference earlier, but a logo wasn't showing and no one would recognize Orange Orange's colors. It wasn't a chain, just a front for a secret base. Sarah had only said she worked with Bryce, which wouldn't have been at a yogurt store. Sarah figured Jill must have done some research before dinner.

Chuck looked to Sarah letting her establish the cover. She said, "_Now_, I work at one. You know I used to work with Bryce. International finance. I'm not strapped for cash. The yogurt job simply keeps me busy and not flying around the world, letting me remain close to my future husband."

Jill looked like she didn't know what to think. Conveniently, the valet returned with Sarah's car. Jill got her first look at Sarah's Porsche. "Um. That's a nice car."

"I know. Isn't it?" Sarah said. She needed to keep them talking. "It's too bad that tonight fell through. Did you want to try again, tomorrow?"

Guy has been enamored all night with someone who spoke French as well as he did, so he happily said, "Jill and I are going to the opera tomorrow night after another day of the conference. My family's box keeps a box here in LA, where there's room for two more. They are performing _La Traviata_. It's Italian, not French. C'est la vie."

"Nessun problema," Sarah said in Italian. "We'd love to go. Wouldn't we, Chuck?"

He quickly agreed, "Yes, then we could finish our evening and go out for a late dinner afterwards." Sarah was pleased Chuck was following her lead and helping continue the mission.

Guy nodded in confirmation. "Then, I can leave your names at the box office. We'll see you tomorrow." The germaphobe still didn't shake hands. Jill and Chuck shared an awkward looking hug, and Jill gave Sarah another flimsy handshake.

After they left in their separate cars, Sarah asked Chuck, "What was that flash?"

"Maybe you should pull over."

"It'll be fine. I don't always flash."

"Please."

Sarah acquiesced, pulled to the side of the road, and put the car in park.

Chuck said, "The text message was about 'Uncle Tobias' from 'Mom.'" Sarah _did_ flash. When she was done, Chuck asked if she was ok.

She said, "Yes. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't driving on the 405 when that happened."

"What's Fulcrum? Does that flash mean Jill works for them?" Chuck asked. "She's the one who received the text message."

"I don't know. It's a good thing we have another mission already lined up for the opera tomorrow night. Tonight, we talked about ourselves to put them at ease, so maybe they would reveal more. Tomorrow night, there's no messing around. We've flashed on _both_ of them. If they were working for our government or Guy was a DSGE agent, we would have been found out before setting up a fake restaurant. We need to find out more. When we get home early, and Ellie asks, _nothing_ went wrong. We just have a rain check until tomorrow. Got it?"

Chuck gave Sarah a quick kiss in agreement then leaned back to his seat, ready to go where she drove. He did ask, "Can we stop and get—"

"I'll go through a drive-thru to get two cheeseburgers. Also, a large order of fries for you to eat and me to steal."

* * *

A/N: The _Chuck _rule is don't do it once when you can do it twice: "_Second_ first date," Ellie and Devon's second wedding, Chuck's second proposal in the hospital hall, Chuck and Sarah's practice vows and actual vows, and the beach scene. Why have a single double date when you can have two train wrecks where people can't look away?

Songs:  
"Double Date" by Roy Orbison  
"Le Festin" from _Ratatouille_ by Michael Giacchino, performed by Camille


	7. Be Somewhere Else

_Published June 26, 2020_

A/N: I know you don't know what happened on the second double date, yet. Neither does Ellie.

* * *

_**Evening of November 11, 2008, after the second double date/mission**_

Ellie was really looking forward to the evening. Her housemates were out on another misguided double date, but it had a silver lining because of the opportunity it provided. The previous night, she had been shocked by the entire situation. The attempted date was shorter than expected, but at least there was no bloodshed. This time, she wasn't caught off guard by the concept, and as a bonus, Devon has the night off too. She and her future husband had the entire apartment to themselves. She knew that after the opera, Chuck and Sarah were going out to dinner with that demon spawn and the creepy guy she was using. That meant complete privacy for a few hours. Warning only a towel, practically strutted as she walked down the hall to join Devon, who was already in the shower.

Abruptly, the front door opened, scaring Ellie to death. She stood frozen in the middle of the hall. It was the last place she wanted to be, practically undressed, when an intruder (or another computer-stealing ninja) broke in. It wasn't one. What Ellie saw surprised her more than any intruder. It was none other than Sarah, wearing the gorgeous, blue dress from her date, pointing a gun directly at her.

"Is anyone else in the apartment!?"

Ellie's eyes darted to the bathroom, which held the running shower and her waiting fiancé.

"Other than Devon?" Sarah amended her question.

Chuck squeezed in behind Sarah. Upon seeing his towel-clad sister, Chuck said, "Oh boy, Ellie's naked." He turned, covered his face, and stepped back to the courtyard.

"Chuck, get back in here," Sarah ordered. "She has a towel on, and I don't want you out there by yourself. Ellie, are you two alone?"

Ellie frequently dealt with unexpected circumstances at the hospital, so she pulled herself together and answered with more confidence than she felt, "It's just Devon and me."

Sarah immediately lowered her gun to hang loosely at her side.

"Sarah, what is going on? Why do you have a gun!?"

Sarah said, "It's not mine. I don't have time to explain, right now. Chuck, I said get in here!" Chuck complied, returning inside the apartment, this time with his head down. Sarah continued, "We need to be out of here as soon as possible. You and Devon need to pack a bag for a day. I want to be out of here in five minutes."

Chuck rushed to his and Sarah's room to pack for the two of them. He'd need at least ten minutes, not that Ellie understood why they needed to pack at all.

Ellie remained frozen in place. Sarah raised her gun back to eye level, and proceeded to check the kitchen. "Ellie, get dressed and start packing. I said five minutes. I'd prefer it to be ten minutes ago, not five minutes from now." After clearing the kitchen, she said, "Go! I'll get Devon."

Chuck called from his bedroom, "Sarah, ten minutes ago isn't possible. Ten minutes ago we were still at the opera house!"

That timeline made no sense to Ellie, not that any of this made sense to her. She was certain it would take at least fifteen minutes to get home from where they were, and that was only if conditions were ideal. Whatever was going on, it was serious, so she returned to her bedroom to get dressed.

Sarah called back, "Chuck, if it was just us, we'd be out of here in less than a minute. Honestly, we wouldn't have even come here because I keep a bag in the trunk. We're here for Ellie and Devon. Ellie, that means you need to stop freaking out and hurry. Freaking out is Chuck's thing, and I told him on the way here he can't do it this time."

Sarah opened the door to the bathroom. Devon mistook who it was and said, "I've been waiting for you."

"It's me, Devon. Sorry, things have changed. Ellie won't be joining you. Come out of there, get dressed, and help Ellie pack. We're leaving in four and a half minutes."

Sarah walked into Ellie and Devon's bedroom right after Ellie had finished putting on jeans and an old UCLA T-shirt. Sarah still looked like she was ready to pounce at the smallest thing. She also still held a gun down to her side.

"Sarah, you need to tell me what's going on. I can't get packed in five minutes—"

"Four minutes."

"Or four minutes. There's no way Chuck can get ready that fast. He always over-packs. It'll take him twice that long to narrow things down."

Almost as if his ears were burning, Chuck walked in. "Sarah, I thought we'd be using the go-bags in your trunk, but it looks like our suitcases are already packed. I was wondering where that 'faux paw' T-shirt of mine is."

"That's for me because it smells like you. I bought you a new one. I could get you to wear it some time, but then it would smell like you, too, making it mine."

Ellie ignored her possessive housemate. "You're already packed!? What are go-bags?"

Sarah answered the first question, addressing both of them, "I unrealistically thought maybe we'd get away on short notice for a fun weekend. There's two days packed for each of us, but the lingerie I packed isn't practical for this type of situation. I didn't pack Chuck's comic books, I mean graph novels, but he should leave them, anyway. They'll be safe here. Chuck, we need to be ready to move in four minutes."

"Got it." Chuck started to leave, but stopped when he saw Ellie was just standing there, not packing herself. "Sis, I know this is strange, but everything is ok as long as we trust Sarah. She won't let anything happen to us." He resumed going back to his room, but on the way there, he called from the hall, "She's in charge!"

Devon entered the bedroom wearing only some boxers he had worn earlier to the bathroom. "This is not awesome. Babe, what is going on?"

Ellie found herself once again stuck in one place on the floor. "I don't know, Devon. We've been told to pack before we evacuate and that Sarah's in charge."

Devon tried to process the strange new reality. Sarah was the only person not motionless. She pulled an overnight bag out of the closet, setting it on the bed, next to her gun. Apparently, she was taking in upon herself to help the two of them pack. At that moment, though, they all heard the computer in the other room. Sarah left to check on Chuck.

"What are you doing, Chuck? I thought you make regular backups."

"I do. Ellie and Devon's Flickr pics, too."

"Good. I really like that picture of the two of us that was taken last weekend. If you aren't making backups, why are you on the computer?"

"Since we're already packed, I'm uploading this flash drive so decryption can start."

"We only have three minutes."

"A brute force approach could take hours, but we know two names which should help a lot. I can get the process started the right direction before we have to leave."

None of that made sense to Ellie, but Chuck was hard to separate from his computer. She just kept laying things out on the bed that would go in the suitcase. Devon was complying too, though she wasn't sure about some of his choices.

Sarah reentered their bedroom. "Devon, you shouldn't bother with workout clothes or weights. Take only what you need to get by, like underwear and a toothbrush."

Devon gave her a skeptical look. "You're not taking your own workout clothes?"

"I said I had packed so Chuck and I could go on a weekend getaway. That means I had workout clothes and resistance bands. Under other circumstances, I'd let you use them, but we won't have time for that kind of thing. I'm definitely not going on a jog. I'm not letting the three of you out of my sight that long. We're out of here in two minutes."

Ellie knew there was no way that could happen. Even with Chuck packed, it'd take at least five, more likely ten minutes to get him off the computer. Sarah moved some of the items which Devon had laid out to the side: bicycle shorts, twenty-five pound dumbbells (which wouldn't have fit anyway), and one of Ellie's fancier bras (which even she knew was not appropriate.)

Suddenly, the front door flew open, again. The gun, which Sarah had set down on the bed as she helped, was quickly in her hands, raised, and pointed out at eye level as she moved to the hallway. Ellie stayed in place and looked to Devon, who looked just a freaked-out as she was.

Ellie heard Sarah say, "Casey, it's clear. I wanted to be in the car and leaving in less than two minutes. It's a good thing we have yours for the space, but I think we're going to have to drag them out of here."

Ellie thought she had been doing fairly well, considering. At least four more minutes to pack would be helpful, though. Most of what she still needed was in the bathroom cabinet. First, she wanted to know what was John doing bursting into her home?

She poked her head out and saw John with a gun of his own. His was lowered in front of him, held in two hands, so he had been ready to shoot, but it'd take a second now, instead of less than half of that.

"What's the hold-up, Walker?"

"Ellie and Devon weren't prepared for something like this. I'm sure they never imagined that not one, but two people would burst through their front door, reading to shoot any threat. I'm lucky I got here before Ellie joined Devon in the shower, or they'd be even longer." John grunted before Sarah finished explaining the situation. "Chuck is doing something smart with computers. He knows his time is limited, but he has assured me this won't take long."

Sarah's cell phone rang. Ellie saw Sarah stare at her phone for a couple seconds. The gun-toting woman said, "It says 'unknown number.' That means it's a number that I've never called. There's only one person that would have this number that it could be."

She answered the phone, "Carina, what is it? This is not a good time. … Woah, slow down. … We have one minute left before a full evac of everyone. … No, Morgan does not have a new girlfriend. Apparently he's still hung up on you. We need to talk about that. … What?! … Why were you talking to him? Never mind. What you heard is probably related to what is going on here. I'll take care of it and will let you know. Casey's taking charge here." She hung up.

Ellie asked, "Who was that?"

"Carina."

John grunted.

"Your friend that Morgan is always talking about?"

Sarah nodded once and put her head in her bedroom to talk to Chuck.

"I still have a minute and a half."

"It was more like thirty seconds. Now it's negative thirty seconds. That was Carina on the phone. It's Morgan. We have to go _right now_."

"Yes, right." Chuck immediately joined them in the hallway.

Sarah directed to Ellie, "Earlier, Chuck said I'm in charge. Now Casey is."

"John?"

"Yes. You probably guessed a little of Casey's background."

"Reserves, right?"

Sarah tightened her mouth and said, "When something happened earlier tonight, I asked him to come here because I thought we might need someone like him. I got here first. Unfortunately, I needed to be two places at once to secure the entire family."

"Family." _Who? Oh, Morgan._ Ellie supposed that applied to someone who always came to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, but that didn't mean she was any closer to understanding the even more alarming turn the night had taken after the phone call from Morgan's… girlfriend?

"Walker, it's not safe for you and Chuck both—"

"Casey, I'll be fine, and the safest place for Chuck is right behind me. Trust me."

Chuck pulled Ellie into a strong hug. "Do everything that Casey says. It'll be ok, sis."

"Finish packing as soon as possible. I mean it. They already got Morgan. I'll protect your brother with my life. We'll meet later."

The hug broke up, and Ellie gave a quick one to Sarah, which she accepted but stopped it quickly to match the hurry she was in.

Chuck went to Casey to hand him a flash drive. "I uploaded this and started decryption, but you should keep the original secure. If I find out later if you made Ellie or Awesome do anything stupid, like the hokey-pokey—"

"I'll make you regret it," Sarah finished. She lifted up the couch cushions and pulled out another gun! _A gun safe was under the couch in the family room!_ "You don't get yours this time, Chuck." _A gun for Chuck!?_

John said with disapproval, "It only has tranqs anyway."

Sarah handed John the gun she had been wielding when she entered the apartment five minutes before. "This one is hers. It's evidence. It hasn't been fired since the two times at the auditorium. Come on, Chuck, let's go." They both ran out.

Casey looked at Ellie and Devon, who had come out into the hallway to check on the commotion. The man who had been left in charge said, "Hurry up. In my next sparring session with Walker, I don't want her to think I let you dilly-dally here. That wouldn't be pleasant."

Ellie went to the bathroom to get some things she needed. She heard Devon ask, "Marines, right? How many tours have you done, John?"

"That's classified."

"Whoa. Awesome. And yet, you're scared of Sarah?"

John scoffed, "Walker, no. I could take her. An angry Walker who is mad I didn't do everything to protect her family? Oh yeah. I'm not crazy."

"What rank are you?"

"Major."

"Awesome." Devon gave an awkward looking salute and said, "Following your orders, sir." He hurried back to finish packing.

John called after him. "Put on a shirt."

"Can you tell me what's going on?" Ellie asked her neighbor, coming out of the bathroom with an arm full of supplies.

"That doesn't matter right now. You're lucky I'm resetting the countdown. We're pulling out in the Vic in three minutes, and you need to help me take Chuck and Sarah's bags. I don't want to have to knock the two of you out and carry you both to the Vic. I'll do that even if your frat boy still doesn't have a shirt on."

Ellie didn't think it was possible to fireman-carry two people at the same time, one over each shoulder.

Casey said, "I can see what you are thinking. I'd have to drop you both onto the payment before I threw you one at a time into the back seat. The suitcases that are packed for Chuck and Sarah and the one you are packing right now would stay here. Before Sarah and Chuck meet up with us, they'd probably stop at someplace like CVS or Walmart. It might not even be necessary. Sarah probably has go-bags for each of them in her trunk. I do. Sarah's been doing this for a decade and a half, almost as long as I have."

There was that word that Ellie never thought she'd here in real life. "Go-bags." Sure, she had heard the term in movies, but she didn't think it was something anyone actually did. Why would Sarah have one before she was a teenager?

"If you're going to use your big brain to try to figure it out, do that while finishing getting ready."

That wasn't the explanation that Ellie was hoping would make everything make a tiny shred of sense. Maybe Chuck would explain things after he and Sarah returned from rescuing Morgan.

Ellie repeated "rescuing Morgan" in her head.

She hoped she got _some_ kind of explanation when she saw them again, but until then, she could follow her neighbor's orders. A thought made her grin. She'd return the favor the next time he came over for dinner and she wanted the table cleared quickly for dessert. First, she just needed to grab toothpaste on her way back to finish packing. Chuck and Sarah used peppermint, but she was using spearmint and didn't want to borrow and go back to that flavor.

* * *

A/N: What happened in the second double date? Let's just say there was gunfire, but Sarah still counts it as a date. (It wasn't Sarah's gun.) More details next chapter.

Song:  
"Severed Dreams" by Christopher Franke from the 1997 Hugo Award winner for the best dramatic presentation: the _Babylon 5_ episode of the same name. It's another TV show, but the line "If you value your lives, be somewhere else" seemed fitting. The show also stars Devon's awesome dad.


	8. Double Rancard Deux

_Published June 27, 2020_

A/N: In _Chuck_, the second try is often simpler. (Woodcomb wedding, Chuck's proposal, even the second first date when compared to the first.) Not this time. Operas are dramatic. Sometimes the second try is more successful. (Woodcomb wedding, Chuck's proposal). Sometimes it's not. (The second first date). This time… You'll see.

The opera is in Italian, but it's set in Paris and it's Guy's family box, so French still works for the chapter title, in a way. If you're still thinking English (which is probably a good idea since this chapter is written in English), it's Double Date Two.

* * *

_**Earlier in the Evening of November 11, 2008  
**_

As the performance started, Sarah maintained her strong grip on her fiancé, who sat next to her in their balcony seats. It was about the only good thing about the evening so far, but Sarah thought it was a nice benefit of "yet another mission." She never felt this way when she and Bryce were dating while they were partners.

For this second mission/double date with Jill and Guy, she and Chuck were watching an opera from Guy's family box. His family owned a vineyard in France and had a box in an opera house in LA. Her car didn't seem audacious by comparison. After the show, she and Chuck were going out for dinner with the other couple. Hopefully this time, they would find out why Guy was in the Intersect, why Jill was getting text messages about Uncle Tobias, also in the Intersect, and what Fulcrum was.

When getting ready at home, Ellie cautioned her about another double date with the evil ex, but it wasn't the same as the first night. Ellie's eyes danced, and Sarah could tell she was making plans for a night alone with Devon.

The opera part of the date reminded her of watching _Pretty Woman_ with Chuck and her other two housemates a few months ago. When they discovered she hadn't seen it, they insisted that she do so that very night. Sarah recalled the part in which Richard Gere's character said: "People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic. They either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul." Sarah was in neither camp. She _had_ been to the opera—to this opera in fact—in Rome, on a mission. She neither loved it nor hated it because she didn't pay attention to much of it. That wasn't the mission. Her date was better this time. Last time, the mark ended up dead later that night. This time, she got to hold on to the love of her life. She didn't care that his hand was moist. Their bond was real.

It was Chuck's first time to an opera. She didn't know if it would become part of his soul, but he was headed that way. Opera music hadn't been his thing before, but he seemed pumped about another chance to dress up and go out with her. He had listened to the Verdi opera on his iPod, on repeat, all day. If Chuck ended up wanting to go to the opera all the time, it was fine with her as long as she got to hold his hand all evening. That was also one of the big pluses about going to sci-fi movies with Chuck. Neither place was as good as snuggling with Chuck in front of the TV at home, but she still got to sit by him all night.

This night's opera date was a mission, though, so Sarah needed to get into mission-mode. Nothing was likely to be important until dinner, but it wouldn't hurt to get mentally prepared early.

When intermission came at the end of the first act, Sarah could tell Chuck had loved it, even though he didn't know Italian. She wondered whether he'd be asking her for a translation in bed tonight or whether earlier that day he had looked up the _La traviata_ story online.

Jill handed the opera glasses that she had been using back to Guy, and Chuck clenched hard on Sarah's hand. Sarah hadn't flashed and didn't see him flash, but maybe he saw something she didn't (four eyes are better than two), or maybe she had missed the reaction of the better flasher. Before Sarah could figure out a way to discreetly ask Chuck about it, Jill asked her to go to the restroom with her.

Sarah hated when women wanted to go there in pairs. The restroom was a solo activity. A few months ago, she asked Ellie what the point was. Her friend said that sometimes it was to gossip about the guys they were with. Since Sarah's guy was Ellie's brother, that was never a reason. Another reason was to prevent the other from being hit-on on the way to the restroom. Sarah always figured she could easily handle any unwelcome attention herself, but it was a valid reason for some people.

With Jill, that reason made no sense. They wouldn't be friends sticking up for each other if some guy showed up. She didn't care if someone hit on Jill. Jill probably wanted someone to hit on Sarah thinking it might destroy Sarah and Chuck's relationship. Jill didn't know that it was more likely the guy would end up with a broken figure or nose. The ex's help wasn't wanted or needed.

Sarah figured she ought to go anyway, because that was what women did. She gave Chuck a kiss, whispering, "Did you?"

Chuck mouthed, "I'll be fine."

She wasn't happy about leaving Chuck alone with the guy they had flashed on the day before, but there were a lot of people in the auditorium. Maybe this would be a good opportunity to find out something from the other mark.

Chuck gave her a quick peck and said, "Hurry, the line is probably getting long. You don't want to miss the second act." The opera had three, so each intermission would be short.

Sarah and Jill reached the already long women's room line. Jill noted, "You keep Chuck on a short leash."

Sarah shrugged. It's not like she'd say it was her job to protect him. The truth was she was happier with the man she loved near her, even when it wasn't a mission. If that was considered a short leash, so be it. She decided to play it off as an engaged-couple thing. She didn't care if it made her seem like a bit of a stalker. Chuck was allowed to stalk her as much as he wanted. She knew the love was requited. Tonight's cover, which had Sarah quitting her good paying job to take a job serving frozen yogurt to be near her future husband, was already weird. "We're going to be together the rest of our lives. In my heart, we're already married, and I don't want to miss a thing."

Jill nodded like she understood what Sarah was saying, but judgement was written all over her face.

At that moment, Sarah's watch vibrated. Sarah had worn a narrow, dress watch for the evening, making it smaller than some of the gadget watches she often wore. Its mic wasn't great, but it still had a two-way communication function if she pushed a button on the side. The only other key feature was it would vibrate if Chuck pressed the SOS button on his.

"Sorry, Jill. I don't have my purse, and I just remembered I need to go back to Chuck. You keep the place in line." Sarah was off in a flash.

Sarah returned to the seats to find the two men standing, both looking at a small cylinder in Chuck's hands. It had some metal pins sticking out one end. They looked up at her.

"Sarah," Chuck said with a smile. "Look what I found."

"I thought you said you didn't…"

"I said I'll be fine. You're here, and I am." Chuck put the folded opera glasses, which he must have taken from Guy, in his pocket before she could get a good look. He raised the metal tube in his hand. "I found this. The Culper Ring used to use stuff like this to pass information during Revolutionary War days."

Guy said with some resignation, "Of course you Americans know all this stuff from your revolution."

Sarah countered, "I didn't know it. Chuck's just that smart." Maybe he got that from a flash, but Chuck was that smart about other things. "What's it for?"

Guy wasn't forthcoming. Chuck said, "Oh, well… there's something to match the end of this key. You know…" He looked around at the floor of the box. "Something… Something… Like this." He pointed to a metal circle on the floor with four holes that matched the pins at the end of the key in Chuck's hands.

Chuck tried the four pins of the key in the four holes. Guy's face dropped in shock, and he stepped back. "I can't believe this is happening."

Sarah watched in amazement as her genius fiancé opened a floor safe and pulled out a big, black, wooden box. He placed it down on one of the chairs and opened it. Inside there was a red, digital clock set at one minute and ten seconds. Below it were twelve scrambled wooden blocks with musical notes. The box made little beep sounds as the timer counted down.

Sarah said, "That's a bomb."

"No. I would never," Guy said.

"We can't risk it. Come on, Chuck. We gotta go."

"I can get this," Chuck asserted.

"If it looks like a bomb, and it ticks like a bomb, then generally, it's a bomb."

Guy defended himself, "It's just a time lock."

Chuck didn't get up to leave, staying focused on the device. "It's a music thing. We're in an opera house. What's the opera?" He looked up to Guy, who didn't say anything.

Sarah said, "This one?" Guy still didn't say anything. He had wanted to assure them it wasn't a bomb, but he wasn't about to help them bypass a timed lock. She suggested, "This one?" Sarah picked up on Guy's tell that she had guessed correctly, so she said to Chuck, "It's the one we've been watching: Verdi's _La traviata_."

"Great. That'll be good to know," Chuck said. "We're on the clock, so I could use your help here."

"I don't see how I can help, Chuck. You're the music guy."

"But you told me you played violin in high school. That means you can read music, which isn't surprising because you can read anything. I haven't placed an instrument since high school, just like you."

He had a point. Sarah knelt beside him and using the staffs and ties as guides, started arranging the blocks so they were all the same direction. It was good teamwork, with Chuck putting the right-side up blocks in an order that made sense, when Jill walked into the balcony box.

"What is going on here?" Jill demanded. Sarah darted up and stood between the suspected enemy and Chuck, who stayed focused on the lock. "What is that?"

Guy fumbled an answer. "Chuck figured out the opera glasses had a key in the stem. He used it to open a floor safe, which contained that."

With eight second left on the timer, Chuck completed the puzzle. The timer stopped, and a flash drive popped up. Chuck pulled the flash drive out. With excitement, he started, "This is—" He looked up and noticed Jill standing there. With much less enthusiasm, he finished "—it."

Sarah stayed silent. Part of her wanted to put an end to this fake double date by knocking everyone out and getting Chuck out of there. She wasn't yet positive she couldn't get them out of there without blowing their covers.

The hesitation caused by her uncertainty was her mistake. Jill pulled a gun from her purse. Sarah silently cursed herself for being too far away to knock the gun free with a swing of her leg.

"What is that?" Jill said, even more angry sounding than before. She turned a little to point the gun directly at Guy. He backed up a half step towards the edge of the balcony. "I said, what is that? I assume that contains something you shouldn't have. What?" Jill repeated.

Clearly frightened, Guy admitted, "It lists people in the CIA, FBI, and a few other agencies who are working for Fulcrum."

"Fulcrum" was the name of the group that came up in a flash the night before. If they were embedded in other agencies, they might have had Bryce break into the government lab that held the first Intersect terminal. They might have been behind the death of Graham and the agents that were supposed to download the beta Intersect.

Sarah could tell Jill was unsteady, making her unpredictable. "I can't believe you, Guy. I went to bat for you, telling Leader you were not expendable and could still be a valuable member of Fulcrum. Meanwhile, you were hiding a list of everyone working with us." Jill was furious. "What are you trying to do, get the Feds to hunt us down and kill us? Fulcrum is probably also going to come after _me_ because I worked with _you_. You've tainted me. There's only one way that will convince them that I'm not working against them."

Jill leveled her gun more fully at Guy's chest and fired. The gunshot impact pushed Guy backwards, flipping him over the edge of the balcony into the crowd below, to his death. Several people screamed.

Face filled with rage, Jill pointed the gun at Chuck, with Sarah standing in between. "Give me the flash drive."

"Here. You can have it." Chuck handed it toward Jill, over Sarah's shoulder. "Please don't shoot us, Jill."

Sarah could tell killing people was new to Jill. Shooting her boss-with-benefits might have been a first. Her head was fogged-up because her job with Fulcrum wasn't killing people. She was a scientist. The emotional toll was hitting her very hard, meaning she wasn't focused on everything around her. It meant Jill was volatile, but it also meant she underestimated Sarah. That gave her a window.

Since Sarah was closer to Jill, she took the flash drive from Chuck's hand over her shoulder to relay it to Jill. The armed woman reached out her hand and moved a step closer. It was all the opportunity that Sarah needed.

Sarah grabbed that wrist and lifted her leg sharply. Using the platform at the bottom of her heels as a club, she knocked the weapon out of Jill's hand. Jill was surprised by the sudden move and didn't immediately react. Sarah drove to the side for Jill's gun, which had landed on the floor. With a half turn, she pointed it towards the enemy, but Jill had finally reacted by starting to flee out of the balcony box. Without aiming, Sarah squeezed off a shot and grazed Jill in the arm. Jill's cry was just one of the many screams in the opera house after that second gunshot went off. Before Sarah could fully pivot to aim a second shot, her target was gone.

Part of her wanted to make chase, but Chuck's safety was the priority. She also held intel that needed to be secured. Jill was a problem for later. First things first. Sarah stood and threw her arms around Chuck. "Are you ok?"

"Yes." Chuck squeezed strongly like only a Bartowski could do.

"Jill is working for Fulcrum, and that agency has infiltrated our government."

He hugged harder, when the door to the balcony box burst open. Sarah quickly pointed the gun at the potential threat, but it was just Casey. He had been working the lobby bar that was serving during the intermission.

Seeing the blood spatter on the door frame, he asked, "Who was shot? Are you both ok?"

Chuck and Sarah nodded. People were still screaming throughout the hall. Some of it was continuing panic. Some of it was from the pushing of the stampede trying to leave. Casey looked to the wall and pulled a fire alarm to get everyone else to leave.

Sarah gave Casey the situation run-down. "Chuck discovered Guy was hiding this flash drive, with a list of people who have infiltrated various Federal agencies. Jill had been at the restroom and returned while he was getting past the lock. Jill was mad that her cover had been blown, or something, so in a rage, she shot and killed Guy. She was threatening to kill us if we didn't give her this drive, but I was able to disarm her. I don't think she's trained as an agent because it was too easy to get her to step closer so I could kick the gun free. Last night's boots would have been useful because they had a gun. These heals could only be used for the kick. I got to her gun first and got off a quick shot, hitting her in the arm as she fled."

"It's too bad she got out before this mass of people made it hard to get out."

Chuck asked, "Where would she go?"

Sarah's face filled with panic. "Let's go, Chuck. Before last night, Jill had researched that I worked at the Orange Orange. She probably knows where we live."

Chuck understood the concern. "Ellie and Awesome."

Sarah said to Casey in a rush, "Jill is acting irrationally and has already killed one person. We have to go protect them. Join us when you can." With no more discussion, Chuck and Sarah were out the door, taking the emergency fire exit to bypass the mass of people that were still leaving in panic.

* * *

A/N: There is an opera, but the opera ended without the fat lady singing.

If you want to split hairs, compared to cannon, the events of this chapter are at least a day early. The entire timeline around Jill staying after the conference made little sense. (Maybe she told her work that she needed a few days because her boss died.) I figure if Guy's family had a box, he could go any night. It's an AU, so don't worry about it as much as I've already talked about it.

Song:  
"Libiamo ne' lieti calici" by Giuseppe Verdi (Look on YouTube. You'll recognize it.)


	9. Superpowers

_Published June 28, 2020_

A/N: Jill has Morgan? That can't end well. (Cue Morgan voice-over, like he used about Jeff's bet at the end of "Chuck vs the First Date.") Somebody could die. (End voice-over.) It won't be because of bags of Twinkies.

Where are our heroes? Last chapter explained what happened before the previous one, in which Sarah directed an evac of the Echo Park apartment. She left to rescue Morgan when Carina called, taking Chuck with her. (She has more trust in protection from her in a war zone more than leaving Chuck behind with bad guys in the wind.)

Now what?

* * *

_**Still November 11, 2008, but after Chuck and Sarah left Casey in charge of the Echo Park evac  
**_(Casey has to work some Veterans Days, like when he had to tend bar at the opera, but he gets this chapter off.)

Morgan woke, finding himself completely helpless in a dark, car trunk. He had no idea how long he had been out of it.

The last he remembered, he had been hiding in back of the Buy More near the cage, waiting for his shift to end. The last thing he wanted to have to do before the store closed was to fill out the paperwork for some big purchase. Sometimes that meant a warranty plan, too. Any sale made in the last ten minutes would keep him working ten minutes past close. It was part of his mad work avoidance skill-set.

Someone found him—some woman. He thought she looked a little like Jill might look after five years, since he last saw her. It couldn't be her, though. It was probably because he had Jill on the mind, since hearing that she was on _another_ double date with Chuck and Sarah.

It was too bad Carina wasn't in town. He thought they should be the ones going on a double date with Chuck and Sarah—two sets of friends. Instead, he still hadn't seen her since he broke up with Anna. He decided to give her another call while he stayed off the sales floor. She always seemed to like it when he talked about her hotness.

During that call, whoever it was, caught him by surprise, knocked him out, and dumped him in this trunk. The car was moving but he had no idea where they were. It couldn't be the expressway, because they had just stopped briefly for a light. Other than that, he was sure he'd be no help. There had to be a thousand stop lights in LA county. He'd make a horrible blind person.

He thought back to the movie _Sneakers_, which had a blind character over and over asking Robert Redford, who had been kidnapped earlier in the movie, "What did it sound like?" That's what he was supposed to do when thrown into a car where he couldn't see. He was supposed to be like a blind person, listening so he could identify key sounds that would later help track where the car went. Morgan had no clue, though. It seemed easier in the movie. He hadn't been listening well enough—really at all. Maybe they had been on the expressway a couple minutes ago, but he wasn't sure and before that he was unconscious. He had no idea which one it might have been.

He was positive he was being taken some place to be whacked. So much for that double date idea the next time Carina came to LA.

Maybe he could find the trunk release, which according to _The Whole Ten Yards_ was in every car produced since 2000. They were moving, though, so it probably wouldn't end well.

The car slowed and made a few turns, throwing him around the trunk. He was a little proud of himself because he figured out that probably meant they were going around a building or in a parking lot… somewhere. It wasn't much, but it was something.

The car came to a stop, and he heard a car door open and shut. Getting out of the trunk now wouldn't be useful. He'd be seen. He might as well be like a warrior and die honorably, rather than run aimlessly and be caught.

After a minute, he heard some voices outside the trunk. A man said, "What happened? You're injured."

A woman, probably the one that snatched him, replied, "I was shot. Grazed. I ripped off the bottom of my dress and tied it off in a tourniquet." _Great. I'm going to die because an injured woman captured me._

The woman's voice continued, "Guy betrayed us. He had a way of exposing us all. He had hidden a flash drive with information about Fulcrum in his family's opera box, where we were. The other couple somehow found it. I had to kill him to protect us all."

"You're shaking. What's wrong with you?" a second man asked.

"She hadn't killed someone before," the first man said. "She'll get over it. Did you get the flash drive?"

"No. It turns out the other woman has had training, or something. She disarmed me after I shot Guy, and she's the one that shot me."

The second man's voice asked, "How is taking this hostage going to help?"

_That's a good question. Why wouldn't they kill me? Even I know that I'm an expendable hostage. There's only one way this ends for me._

"It's Chuck's best friend, Morgan," the woman answered.

_That sounds like someone is using me to get to Chuck. Never gonna happen. They could pluck out every hair from my beard. It might take a month, but if they did it, I still wouldn't betray my best friend._

"So what?"

"I met Morgan back in college one time when he came to Stanford to visit. Chuck and Morgan have always had a weird, co-dependent relationship. We can trade Morgan for the flash drive."

_I met this woman when Chuck was at Stanford. It couldn't really be The Jill, could it?_

The first man, the scarier sounding one, said, "After the trade, we kill them all, anyway."

The trunk opened. Morgan kept his eyes shut and his head turned down. In movies, they always said they'd kill the hostage because he'd seen their face. Not this hostage. Morgan wasn't going to see anything.

A black hood was pulled over his head, and his wrists were bound in front of him with zip-ties. He was not-so-gently yanked out of the trunk, and pulled up to his feet.

"How do we contact this Chuck to make the trade?"

The woman said, "He's probably number one on Morgan's cell phone."

_Wrong guess._ Morgan smiled even though they couldn't see it. One was reserved for an emergency number. The idea of changing it seemed like he was _asking_ for an emergency that would require calling for help. His mom was two, because anything else would be him being a bad son. Chuck was three. Truth is, it's not like it took any longer to spee dial three than one, and it was easier to reach with his thumb. Maybe it didn't matter. They'd probably use the contacts list so it wouldn't take long to find Chuck in the C's.

One of the men grabbed his arm and led him around the corner of the car. They had only gone two steps when he heard the squeal of tires from a new car.

"That's her car! How did she find us?"

The second man quickly asked, "How do you know it's her car? I thought she worked at a yogurt shop."

"There more to her than meets the eye."

Morgan couldn't help but sing "Transformers" in his head, but that song didn't get stuck there because it was cleared by the sound of a gunshot. The man holding Morgan started to fall, pulling his prisoner with him, making Morgan awkwardly land on the pavement. The man no longer held him, but he was on top of him and Morgan didn't try to move out from under him. Maybe if he didn't move, they'd think he'd been shot, too.

"Take cover!"

Morgan heard a couple gunshots that originated near him. The people who kidnapped him were in a shootout with the whomever who came in that car. He thought it was ironic that whoever drove that car worked in a yogurt shop like Chuck's girlfriend, Sarah. First someone that looked like Jill. Then the mention of Chuck. Now someone was like Sarah. Small world.

The gunshots went back and forth for a few seconds, before a second person fell hard on top of him. After a couple more gunshots, the noise stopped. He wondered if that meant they had shot him, and he was dead, which would be why he couldn't hear anything. He still was having trouble breathing because that second person knocked the wind out of him, so maybe not.

After a few seconds, he heard footsteps running toward him. Someone sat him up and removed his hood. Iit was dark out. All he could see were three people lying on the pavement, a black sedan, and one person he did not expect. That other person made Morgan too amazed to say anything aloud.

_That's Chuck! The real Chuck! My best buddy rescued me!_

"Come on, Morgan! We have to move before more bad guys show up," Chuck said in a rush.

Morgan didn't react right away. He was too stunned. He looked again at the group around him. There were three bodies: a bald guy with a mustache, a person who looked like the blonde thug in _The Big Lebowski_, and Jill. _That was The Jill._ He, Chuck, and the bodies were next to a sedan, probably the one with the trunk which he knew from the inside. They were all by a twenty-story tall office building.

"Morgan. We can't just sit here. We came to get you out of here."

Morgan still didn't get up. He figured he _had_ to be dead. Why else would he think Jill was dead and Chuck was rescuing him after a gun battle. It had to be a really cool thing that flew through his head in his final thoughts.

Another person joined him. This one in a fancy blue dress, squatting to their side, holding a gun. _Sarah!_ It _was_ the same Sarah who drove a Porsche and worked in a yogurt store.

"Chuck, I said to get him and then get in the car as quickly as possible. Go!"

New gunfire rang from the back of the building. Sarah peaked up around the car, using it as cover. She returned fire.

"You heard Sarah. She's in charge. I think the car isn't always the safest place, but people are shooting, so I'm not arguing. To the car we go!"

Chuck started to lift Morgan, so the shorter man could put his feet under him. The two of them did a squatting dash to Sarah's car. It _was_ the Porsche! The passenger side of the car was away from the building, and they stayed low, keeping the car between them and whoever was shooting from the building. Chuck pushed Morgan into the back and then took the seat in the front.

Chuck put his seat belt on and softly said to himself, "We're here. Let's go, Sarah." Morgan was sprawled in the back, too stunned to say anything. After some more shooting, the driver's door opened, and Sarah joined them in the car.

"Seat belts," Sarah said.

"First thing I did when we got into the car," Chuck said.

"Good. Hang on."

Morgan didn't have a seat belt on. The back area didn't really have room for him the way he was spread out. The armrest from the front seat extended to the back, splitting the space in half. He was across the extension across the back so the armrest was in his gut. Since he wasn't sitting upright in a seat, he couldn't put a seat belt on. The back area shouldn't be called a seat. Even if it had a seat belt, he couldn't have put it on with his hands still bound.

Sarah peeled out, gunshots bouncing off the car. _Sarah's car is bulletproof! She was cool even before I knew she drove KITT! _It wasn't a Trans Am Firebird and didn't talk, but it was black and bulletproof. He wasn't hung up on American cars like John from the Buy More. Not your normal hoopdie.

Sarah raced out from around the building's back. She spun the wheel to turn out onto the road, never slowing down.

"Good. They didn't have a chance to try to roadblock the exit." She placed a call on the cell phone that was mounted on her dash.

The arm rest extension was digging into his gut, but at least Morgan thought there was a chance after all that he wasn't going to get whacked. All he had to do was survive this wild car ride.

A woman abruptly asked on speakerphone as Sarah weaved past two cars in traffic. "_Are you secure?"_

"We're clear. We were able to rescue Morgan and are away from the building where they were taking him. You're on speakerphone, so this call is not secure."

Morgan tried to roll himself around so he could sit upright, but the car suddenly jerked to the side, flattening him out. Chuck said, "I'm shutting my eyes. Tell me when it is safe to open them."

Sarah said, "You're always safe with me."

Morgan heard the screeching of tires from other cars. "That was a red light," Chuck protested.

"When someone is shooting at you, red lights are only suggestions." To the phone, she said, "Sorry, Ma'am. We're still making sure we are far enough away."

The stern woman spoke up, _"Understood. Let me know the second you're clear."_

Chuck used a device in his hands with a video screen and said, "I just checked. No one is following us. I think there weren't many people there this late in the evening."

Sarah asked, "How do you know no one is following us?"

At another intersection, Sarah downshifted, slowed, and moved past the right-most lane. They went over a curb to bypass a couple cars, before making the turn. On the new road, Sarah floored it.

Chuck responded, "I re-tasked a satellite on the way over here from the apartment."

The woman on the phone asked, "_Where were you?"_

"1600 Destefano Court."

"_Where are you now?"_

"I'm turning into Franklin Canyon Park." _Turning_, Morgan already knew. The way he was awkwardly spread out, he could feel every single turn. "We need to give Morgan a level 4 briefing, and this place is isolated."

"_That's far enough away from the target zone. Stay clear until the dust settles. Then call back. You need to be debriefed."_

Sarah said, "By the time we're secured here, it will be almost 11. That's 2 AM for you. Will tomorrow morning be ok?"

"_Fine. 8 AM my time, tomorrow morning."_

Chuck quietly said, "That's 5 AM for us."

Sarah shot him a look. They stopped at a spot in the park, up above the canyon, overlooking a pond, looking back towards the city. "That time works for us. Could you please contact Casey and have him return to the Echo Park apartments with Drs Woodcomb and Bartowski?"

The woman said, "_Of course. I expect him to join you tomorrow morning.__ We got parts of the intel decrypted in record time because of the head-start you gave us. We confirmed this is the group behind what happened in September, making tonight a big win. We'll talk more in a few hours."_ She abruptly hung up.

Morgan continued to try to right himself, trying to sit in what could be called a seat as Sarah asked Chuck, "What head-start?"

"That flash drive probably used something hard to crack, like a 256-bit AES encryption key, or something worse. Since we knew two people that were on the list, when we were at the apartment, I started a program to reverse engineer the key using that information as a seed. Isn't 5 AM too early?"

"When we get back to our bedroom, we're not going to be sleeping," Sarah said with a grin. "You have the day off from the Buy More, tomorrow. We might as well stay up." She looked to the back. "Morgan, what are you doing?"

Morgan struggled to right himself and look at his two rescuers. His legs were still caught, but at least he could claim to be sitting. Sort of. "There's no room back here."

Sarah wrinkled her brow. "I know there's not much room, but I thought you're small enough."

"It's hard when you dive into a car with your hands bound with zip-ties."

"Makes sense. Hold out your hands." Sarah reached through the neck of her dress and pulled out a knife that she apparently kept there. Morgan held his hands forward and turned his head. Sarah freed him with a single swing. "Let's get out of the car so we have some room. We're far enough away we should be safe here."

They all climbed out of the car and stood on the overlook gravel area where the car was parked. A single light on a tall pole provided a little bit of illumination to the scenic viewing area where a couple cars could stop. No one was there that late at night because you couldn't see anything. He thought a place like this would be closed.

Morgan spoke first. "Before I express my undying gratitude, I want to make sure I'm not already dead, because having my best friend and his superhero girlfriend rescue me, escaping in a bulletproof car… That's beyond my wildest dreams."

Chuck said, "Yes, you're alive."

Morgan gave his best friend a big hug. He stepped back and turned to give Sarah one, and she held up her hand to stop him.

"Morgan, you're my future best-friend-in-law, but no. Ellie and Chuck are Bartowskis, so there's no stopping them. Even though you're family, there are limits."

Morgan took a quick step back with his hands raised in surrender. "Right, of course. No one else can probably handle your superpower energy by touching you."

Sarah signed. "That's not it. I don't have superpowers."

"She has superhuman-like abilities, but it's all her," Chuck countered.

"I do not have superpowers."

"I know. I said, it's all you." He leaned towards and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

Morgan said, "Tomayto, tomahto. You have a bulletproof car."

"It's not bulletproof. Only the windows are. Their gun calipers were small enough it wasn't an issue. See, there are holes in the doors and in the canopy. The tires are run-slats, but they are probably damaged. I'm going to have to get a new car. It's not worth the body work."

She went on to explain, "It's not like TV shows and movies. Even if the entire car was bulletproof, it wouldn't be left pristine. Bullets still make dents and wreck the finish."

Morgan moved on from the fact he hadn't been in a non-talking, KITT car made in another country. To him, that wasn't the most exciting thing. Everything else was unbelievably cool. "Sarah, the question is which superhero are you most like? Ms. Marvel—no that's Marvel, not DC—"

Chuck interrupted, "You know it bugs me that Marvel's Captain Marvel isn't the original one. The man who was the original is now called Shazam."

"Ok. So Black Canary or Supergirl? Sarah, where were you born?"

Sarah's eyes widened. Chuck saved her by answering for her, "You know Sarah doesn't talk about her birthday. That extends to her birth place. Not Supergirl. It was _this_ planet, and her name is Sarah, not Kara. She also has a good singing voice. No Canary Cry."

Sarah corrected him. "My voice isn't that good. Chuck's voice is a lot better."

"You sing lullabies. My point is you don't have an ultrasonic scream."

"Chuck." With one sharp work, Sarah cut off that line of discussion.

"This is your secret identity—your cover," Morgan said, nodding several times. "Got it. Can I know anything about tonight?"

"It's classified," Chuck said.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "_You_ don't have the authority to classify anything, Chuck. Morgan, we can't tell you everything, of course. But you were in the middle of tonight's events, so you should know some things. Since you saw much of it and there were witnesses for others, it's safer for you to know a little truth than for you to incorrectly or even dangerously assume the wrong thing."

They all heard an enormous explosion. In the distance, they saw a column of fire extending into the night sky. The office building that they were at a few minutes before was in flames. The building was probably less than twenty stories, now, or it would be soon when it collapsed.

"You ordered an airstrike on US soil," Morgan said in amazement. "You're so bad-ass."

Sarah disputed that. "_I_ didn't order anything."

"You were just on the phone with some who…" Seeing Sarah's expression, Morgan stopped. She didn't agree or disagree this time. Morgan didn't worry about it and continued, "If you aren't a superhero, who are you? You can't tell me you are just someone who sells soft-serve yogurt that isn't very good."

The group both turned away from where they had all been gawking. Sarah said, "You've probably figured out I know some connected people. Before I met Chuck, I worked for the government. Now I'm engaged to this wonderful man and have you as my future best-friend-in-law. I had never heard of one of those, but I understand it's very important. Even if best-friend-in-law wasn't a real thing, you're important to Chuck, and Chuck is important to me, which makes you important to me."

"The government…" Morgan started, not sure what to ask. He didn't know where she worked before the Wienerlicious and the Orange Orange, but that was not on the possibilities list. That's so much cooler than where he had worked, Underpants, etc_._

"I can't tell you more than that. I'm with Chuck now, but I still know people. They know about Chuck because I talked to that woman you heard after I came out here, and I told her how smart Chuck is. A couple days ago, I went with Chuck to hang out with him when he was on a Nerd Herd job. We ran into Jill and her boss, who were obviously together-together. We decided to go on a double date."

"You wanted to be around Jill _more_?

Sarah tried to explain. "You've known what Chuck was like for years, but I've only known him for fourteen months. The idea of finding out more about Chuck before I met him was exciting. Jill's boss set off security warning bells that alarmed the people I used to work with, so Chuck and I were asked to report back from the double date if anything seemed suspicious. We never expected what actually happened. The first date fell through because they received a phone call. As you saw, the second attempt tonight went worse."

"That's why I was thrown in a trunk? To find out about Chuck from a few years ago? All you have to do is ask. I know everything." Morgan tapped the side of his head.

"I know I could always ask you or Ellie, but you two are family. This was an 'independent source.'" Sarah linked her arm into Chuck's. "As I was saying, earlier tonight, things went sideways. During Intermission of the opera, Chuck found something. Jill panicked. It turns out that both Jill and her boss were working for a secret, evil organization, and she thought her boss was betraying them. She _shot_ her date."

Morgan's eyes became saucers. "I already thought Jill was evil. By that, I thought evil towards Chuck, not evil like _that_."

Chuck agreed, "Yeah, she's basically an all-around bad person."

Sarah said, "I disarmed Jill and tried to shoot her."

"That explains why she was injured," Morgan said. That was one explanation for something he had heard that finally made sense. "The people who had me said something about her being injured. It's because you have superpow—I mean—'special abilities.'"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "When I got to her gun, I didn't have time to aim."

Morgan said in amazement, "You got her, and you finished the job when you rescued me. You got her again, this time killing her."

Sarah wasn't sure. "When we were watching a movie the other night, Chuck said that bad guys are only dead if they are impaled or beheaded. I didn't do that. We don't know for sure that she didn't get clear before the air strike."

Chuck told her an optimistic outcome. "Maybe you got her. I wasn't looking at the bodies because I don't like the sight of blood."

"Sarah, you definitely got all three," Morgan asserted. "I saw viscera _and_ brain matter."

Chuck held in an upchuck, but the discomfort passed when Sarah kissed him on the cheek.

"How'd you find me?" Morgan asked.

Sarah continued her retelling of the evening. "When Jill left the opera, I was worried she knew where we lived. It'd be smarter for her to run, but shooting someone in an auditorium full of witnesses wasn't smart—she was panicking and lashing out in irrational ways. Chuck and I hurried home to get Ellie and Devon to go someplace safe. You were talking to Carina when Jill kidnapped you. Carina knew I was closer, so she called me."

That was _why_ they found him, but not _how_. _How_ was no longer the important thing. "You're friends with Carina. Does she have superpowers, too?" Morgan asked.

"_We don't have superpowers._ We just used to work together."

"Tomahto it is." Morgan's face was filled with excitement. To Chuck, he directed his enthusiasm, "Not only do we both have girlfriends, but we both have hot, kick-ass girlfriends."

Chuck's expression looked like he might agree, even though he looked to Sarah, biting his tongue. Sarah decided she had to stop this line of thinking. "I'm not Chuck's _girlfriend_. I'm Chuck's _fiancée_. Sorry to break it to you, but Carina is not your _girlfriend_, either." Morgan frowned. "She is not _anyone's_ girlfriend. She doesn't look at relationships that way. She probably doesn't understand the concept of an exclusive relationship."

Morgan waived it off, like that was no big deal. "Carina knows all about Anna and that it's over. Carina is almost never here, but she's told me the next time she's in LA, she wants me to stay with her instead of sleeping at my mom's."

"Morgan, you don't understand. Carina has no interest in staying with one guy. The last time she was here, after you and she watched that penguin movie with Chuck and me, she propositioned him."

Morgan was shocked and accusingly glared at his friend. "How could you?"

Completely caught by surprise, Chuck didn't know to say. Sarah saved him, "Chuck turned her down. She's good at getting men to do what she wants, but this guy—" Sarah bumped him with her hip." —was already mine."

"Are you saying I was sloppy seconds?"

"Not at all. I'm just saying Carina doesn't know how to turn it off. She was testing Chuck for me, and he passed. She obviously cares about you because when she knew something happened to you she called me immediately. I could tell she was freaking out."

"See. What Carina and I have is special," Morgan proudly said.

"That's one way of describing it, but as _your_ future best-friend-in-law, I'm saying you deserve better than a relationship in which you never see each other. You never know when you'll be surprised by someone who can make you happy the rest of your life. I was surprised by Chuck, and I'm thankful my last ex was already out of the picture. I don't want my best-friend-in-law to miss an opportunity like that because he's pining for something that really isn't there. Carina is my closest friend from that time of my life, so understand I'm not putting her down. I'm just telling one friend the truth about how another friend really is."

Sarah lifted the cell phone that she had been holding down at her side. "That reminds me, I need to call Carina and tell her you're ok."

Into the phone, Sarah said, "Calm down, Carina. … Yeah, he's safe. The person who kidnapped him, and the people she was working with are all dead. … I promise you. He's all right. I think that the only problem was my car's back seat isn't designed for an extraction. … Of course, it's not like what I used in Pakistan. … I told you. He's fine. He's standing right in front of me. We got out before the order came down to level the building. On the plus side, I got to shoot Chuck's ex, who was the person who grabbed Morgan. … Fine, I'll put you on speaker." Sarah switched the cell phone so they could all hear.

Carina's voice came over the speaker, "_Martin, my little fuzzy bear, are you really ok?"_

"Yes, ruby goddess. Thanks for sending Chuck and his girlfriend to rescue me."

Sarah couldn't keep quiet, "Fuzzy bear? Really, Carina."

"As if Chuck isn't your fuzzy bear."

"It's more like he's a tall tree, and I'm the koala that won't let go," Sarah said with a little suggestion in her voice. "In fact, considering the color he's turning from embarrassment, he's my redwood." Sarah raised and lowered her eyebrows. To Chuck, she said more quietly, "Since I'm going to be a Bartowski, I need to work on my eyebrow dance."

Over the phone, Carina said, "_And to think that is the second most disturbing thing I've heard on the phone tonight. Martin being kidnapped is still number one."_

"You do realize the name is Morgan, not Martin," Sarah said pointedly.

_"I know. I didn't at first, but now it's a pet name." _She took a deep breath and continued, "_Morgan, this isn't going to work. I don't like the idea of being so concerned about another guy when I'm not there with him. The next time we're in LA, maybe we can still hook up. But only when we're together. Stop calling me and saying all of those cute things before we have phone sex. I am really happy you're safe, but I can't be going through this all the time. Bye."_

Before Carina hung up, Sarah said, "Carina, you should know, Morgan is part of my family. He has an in-law title and everything. If it comes down to it. I'm on his side. Understood?"

"_Understood. Jag kommer att sakna dig, kompis."_

Sarah responded back, "Też będę za tobą tęsknić." They disconnected the call.

Chuck, Sarah, and Morgan stood, staring at each other in a little circle for a few seconds. Sarah asked, "Are you ok, Morgan?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I think I just got dumped."

Sarah said, "With Carina, you weren't together that way so you couldn't actually be dumped. She was preventing things from escalating so she could dump you in the future. She was starting to feel something more, so she changed your situation to something that she can handle. It's impressive that you made her feel things that I didn't know were in her make-up, but it's not fair to _you _to wait around for her. You're better off paying attention to what's actually around you. Like Ellie said after you broke up with Anna, 'you're a catch.'"

Chuck said, "No, Morgan. No. Carina not being in the center picture anymore, doesn't mean Ellie should have that spot. She has Awesome."

"I know. Your apartment is for committed couples. I know I'm a fifth wheel, but I prefer to think of myself as a lone wolf again. Speaking of Ellie and Awesome, what's going on with them? You said you went there first."

Sarah filled Morgan in. "You know more than they do. They know that something went very wrong on the date and that I have a background in dealing with emergency situations like tonight. They know you were in trouble and that Chuck and I were taking care of it. I left Casey in charge of getting them to safety."

"Casey? That same angry John guy who's your neighbor?"

Chuck jumped in, "Yes, him. There's not many Caseys. Once a Marine, always a Marine. We got him to provide back up. As a Major, he can handle things like this."

Despite being "dumped," Morgan cheered up. "You're his boss, and I'm your Lieutenant. A blonde Wonder Woman saved me. I might be without a girlfriend, but I'm on top of the world."

Sarah seriously said, "Morgan, you can't tell anyone about this. Don't harass Chuck for more details. We don't keep secrets from each other, so I'll know if you do. Don't talk to the doctors. I will. I'll make sure Ellie doesn't overreact. Promise?"

"I promise. You don't even need the Lasso of Truth. Let's go. I think I can fit in your back seat if I don't go in head-first. Unless you have an invisible jet around here. I bet you can fly a plane."

* * *

A/N: To summarize what you learned in this chapter… Step 1: Kidnap Sarah's future best-friend-in-law. Step 2: There is no step 2, because you just died.

Trunks have more room than the back seat of Sarah's car, but it now has bullet holes. Maybe a Lotus next time.

That's it for part 2, "Sarah vs Her Best Friend's Ex." Sarah won that "vs" match; her best friend's ex is now dead. "Chuck & His Roommate vs the Next Mission" ended at this point of the parallel AU. One big part and an epilogue left. The next part is "The Intersect Couple vs Family Matters."

Songs:  
_Transformers_ 80s show intro music  
_Knight Rider_ Theme


	10. Who's Invited?

_Published July 30, 2020_

A/N: This is the start of part 3, "The Intersect Couple vs Family Matters." This part's seven chapters are not like "Chuck vs Family Matters," other than both stories deal with "family matters." That AU story, which starts mid-season 2, is highly recommended. As of 7/2020, it's incomplete (probably abandoned) with a last update in 9/2012, but it has multiple scenes that are among the best in all of Chuck fanfic, and the story is far enough along that is still a great read.

It's always a bit of a challenge to classify FFnet stories that cover as many categories as the show Chuck. Romance, Humor, Adventure, Drama, Friendship, Family—pick two. I'm ignoring angst because while the show had its share, 2 1/2 seasons was a lot shorter than most TV shows. This AU waited even less time. This story is categorized as Romance/Adventure. It's a sequel to a Romance (i.e. Charah) story, which is arguably Romance/Adventure/Drama/Family. Since this part of this story is "vs Family Matters," it's Family/Angst. That's not Charah angst, because Charah angst is not allowed here. They are the Intersect Couple, not the Estranged Couple.

A refresher of what's happened in this AU: Chuck and Sarah both have the Intersect, and they got engaged at the end of the previous story, "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust." Because Bryce was shot and killed after destroying a government research lab, he wasn't around to inadvertently reveal the Buy More to Fulcrum. In part 1 of this story, Graham still died when Fulcrum's Trojan horse blew up the beta Intersect. To assert control of the Intersect project, Beckman was going to shut down the team in southern California, which had two people outside of her chain of command and they seemed to no longer flash. Before Castle was put into mothballs, Chuck and Sarah downloaded updates from sunglasses that mysteriously appeared in Chuck's Buy More locker at work. In part 2, both Chuck and Sarah flashed on Jill's boss, Guy, at a chance encounter. During an aborted double date/mission, they flashed on a text message sent to Jill, discovering the existence of Fulcrum. Then, things got worse. During the second double date, Jill flipped out, killing her boss/boyfriend. Sarah rushed home to secure Ellie and Devon, who didn't know they shared an apartment with two human Intersects that worked for the CIA. While there, Sarah discovered crazy!Jill had taken Morgan for leverage. After the good guys were safe and the enemy's building destroyed, Morgan, Ellie, and Devon all knew there is more to Sarah than meets the eye. Morgan's theory involves superpowers. The doctors think that before Sarah moved to Echo Park, she had some special job outside of the food service industry. They were all right to an extent, but none of them knew what is really going on with Chuck and his girlfriend.

* * *

**December 19, 2008  
**

"So we are all in agreement then? Yes to the trout. No to the beef au jus," Honey Woodcomb said to the others who were supposed to be helping plan Ellie and Devon's wedding. "And what was your favorite cake, Ellie? Oh, it doesn't matter. Let's agree on the red velvet."

"Big fan." Woody Woodcomb piled on another wedding reception suggestion. "And I love sorbet between courses."

Sitting at the dining room table with her future husband, his parents, her brother, and his future wife, Ellie was overwhelmed. This planning session was supposed to help make things clearer, but it was becoming clear that she wasn't going to be making the decisions. The older, "awesome" doctors were out of control. A few weeks ago, Sarah burst in waving a gun around. Maybe if Ellie asked, her maid-of-honor could take control like she did then. Ellie thought maybe it was a good thing that Sarah had a gun safe under the couch. It's not like she would shoot someone, but it would help her take charge. There ought to be a rule about the distance from someone like her to the closest gun. That would be separate from the rule that as doctors, Devon and she would never have one. Chuck would only have one that served as a video game controller.

"Great idea, Woody," Honey said to her husband's suggestion. She asked Ellie, "So, are you going to wear your hair up?"

Ellie couldn't answer, or even process, the question, before Woody suggested, "Wait a second… I just had a brilliant idea. White ties."

"Woody looks so handsome in a white tie. That's not too formal is it?"

"I don't know." Ellie didn't know much of anything at the moment. She didn't think Honey really cared about an answer to any of her questions.

"And I know you're not in contact with your dad, so I would be honored, really, to walk you down the aisle on your wedding day."

That last offer was Ellie's limit, causing her to down the rest of her wine. She was used to being in-charge, something she started when she was barely a teenager because her mom left and her dad checked-out. Part of her wanted to go along with her future parent-in-laws' decisions to keep them happy, but she thought the bride was supposed to be in-charge.

Devon read her well enough to realize what was going on. "You know, guys, maybe we should just table the wedding talk."

Ellie appreciated the sentiment, but it was too late. As she was still swallowing the last of her drink, she wagged her finger. "No. I have something I'd like to say, actually. I said _yes_ to the big wedding, and I said _yes_ to the burgundy organza bridesmaid dresses, and I just can't say _yes_ anymore." She held up her hand in apology towards Honey—or it was a back-off signal. "And I'm sorry, I know that you're trying to help, but the answer is _no_. I'm sorry." She stood up and left the table. On her way back to the bedroom, she repeated. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Babe…" Devon started to follow. To the table he said, "Sorry." Calling after her, he tried to get her attention. "Sweetie… Sweetheart… Sweetheart?"

Ellie collapsed on the bed and buried her head in her pillow, trying not to completely melt into a puddle of tears. Devon sat on the bed next to her and rubbed his hand gently on her back to sooth her.

After a few seconds, there was a quiet knock at the door. Ellie didn't look to see who it was, but she felt Devon get up from the bed. She heard Sarah's calm voice. "Devon, your parents are talking about going for a walk. Please deal with them. Chuck and I have this here."

The development surprised Ellie enough for her to turn her head to look. Devon left the room, and Sarah entered, pulling Chuck behind her.

Chuck stood just inside the door, almost shyly, until Sarah gave him a nudge. "Go, Chuck. Devon's the best person to deal with his parents. Ellie's upset and needs someone. You're good at that."

Despite being overwhelmed by the out-of-control wedding planning, she had to hold back a snort. Sarah hadn't tried to stop the Woodcomb juggernaut, but she _was_ taking charge again. This time _without_ a gun. She was deploying Devon and Chuck to deal with their separate situations.

A minute before, Ellie had been pushed too far and told everyone, but now the situation was almost comical. Sarah couldn't deal with two forceful, but well-intended doctors, so she ordered Devon to do that. She wanted Ellie to have someone to comfort her and thought she wasn't as good at it as Chuck, so she ordered him to do that. Ellie didn't know Sarah's family situation, but considering she hadn't heard her housemate talk about her parents in over a year of living under the same roof, she knew it wasn't good either. The only reason she knew about what Sarah was doing tomorrow night was because she had suggested a mojitos and girls-night out, and Sarah gave a reason for turning down the invite. At least in tonight's mess, she wasn't ordering an evacuation and wasn't shooting people.

Ellie sat up on the bed, and Chuck sat right beside her. She wrapped her brother in a strong hug for comfort. She couldn't hold in all of the tears anymore, but she was glad she had the person with her that could most understand. Sarah had stayed across the room by the door, so not breaking the hug, Ellie reached out her hand to the commander/her hero. Sarah stepped forward to take Ellie's hand. Once she did, Ellie pulled Sarah down into a group hug.

They stayed that way a minute, before Ellie steadied her breathing. She released her brother and future sister and wiped the tears that were streaming down her face. She saw Chuck's eyes were red, which made sense because she'd been crying, which caused him to cry. That's how he was. Sarah's face was filled with concern, but her eyes darted to Chuck like she didn't know what to do next and he was supposed to take the lead.

Ellie figured she should explain what had pushed her over the edge. "I've never been one of those girls that dreamed about what her wedding day would be like. What I would wear. Even the person that I would marry. It was all kind of hazy. Except one thing was clear. Dad would walk me down the aisle."

"Oh, El." Chuck met her for another hug between brother and sister.

Sarah put her hand softly on Ellie's arm. "You're a strong woman who raised a wonderful brother. You're perfectly capable of walking yourself down the aisle. That's what I'm going to do. Or Chuck could give you away. Right, Chuck?"

"Of course," he said, not hesitating or breaking his hold on her.

"However, if you want your dad to walk you down the aisle, then your dad's going to walk you down the aisle," Sarah strongly asserted.

Ellie and Chuck jerked back in shock, both staring at Sarah, who looked completely sure of herself.

"You can't say that, Sarah," Ellie said. She looked at her brother. "She doesn't know we haven't heard from him in a really long time."

"She knows," Chuck told Ellie. "Sarah?" Chuck looked questioningly at his future wife for a few seconds. Sarah's face remained filled with confidence. Chuck nodded once and said, "Right. Ellie, we're going to find him."

Sarah stood and held out a hand to her guy. "Let's go, Chuck."

"What? Right now? Can we even—"

"Yes."

"But, you have plans tomorrow."

"Maybe. If they don't fall through. I've learned not to expect much. Anyway, my plans are not until tomorrow night. With you doing your computer magic, if your dad is anywhere close, we have plenty of time. I can pilot a plane as far as New Mexico or Seattle and be back soon enough. Let's go." Chuck took her hand, and the two of them left.

Ellie thought she must be slowing down. First, she couldn't keep up with Honey and Woody's plans. Now, Sarah was going to find her dad in less than a day. And she had a pilot license. Ellie was used to the life-and-death emergency speed of a hospital, but nothing like that.

Sarah always exuded confidence, but Ellie still didn't know her background. If a small fraction of what Morgan said about his rescue was true, it was something extraordinary. That didn't make what Sarah was trying this time possible. Ellie's dad had been missing since Chuck was in high school. It was sweet that she was trying, but Sarah would learn. It was a great diversion to Ellie from what made her leave the planning session and go back to her bedroom. Now, instead of being upset about who was not going to be at the wedding, Ellie was worried about her brother's and her friend's inevitable disappointment.

But first, Ellie had to finish getting herself under control. She didn't care about most of the wedding details as long as she was marrying Devon. Sure, a beach wedding would be ideal, but it was more important that she have the right groom. Honey had commented on her hair style, but Ellie knew she'd have veto power on the dress. You give opinions, but don't mess with a bride's dress selection. She took a tissue to her face and blotted away the remaining moisture. She needed to go out and apologize again to Devon's parents. They couldn't have known that her dad's absence was a trigger for her. Sarah was right. Chuck could walk her down the aisle.

Walking down the hall, she shook her head and lightly chucked at Sarah's enthusiasm of doing the impossible so quickly. Going past the other closed bedroom door, she heard Chuck and Sarah in their room in heated discussion. It made Ellie pause.

"But this is personal. Can we really do that?"

"After what happened with Jill, I'm going to use whatever resources to look into past associations. I'm not singling you out. Me too. I'm just a lot easier than you. I know where my parents are, and my ex is dead."

That made no sense. What were Chuck and Sarah doing? And who was _dead_? Ellie shook her head and resumed the few steps to the kitchen. If Chuck couldn't convince Sarah it was impossible, she'd have to learn the hard way.

In the kitchen, Ellie found Devon, Woody, and Honey working on the dishes. "Oh, you didn't have to do that. I'm so sorry about earlier. All of the things we talked about for the bridesmaid dresses, the food, and the venue will be fine. I'm sure Devon will be a great help finding someone to do the music. It just hit me hard because my dad has been gone for over ten years—my mom even longer. Neither is going to be at my wedding, but the most important people to Devon and me are going to be there, so I'll be fine. Woody, I truly appreciate your offer, but I'm going to draft my brother. He's been with me my whole life so I'd like him to give me away."

Woody nodded and said, "That's a good choice. I didn't mean to offend—"

"I know. Of course. It's not your fault. I just hit me really hard tonight—who is not going to be there."

Honey patted Ellie shoulder and said, "We're very sorry. We're just excited and want to help every way we can. Woody and I thought we should stop the wedding planning this visit. We can continue next time."

"That's probably best." Ellie motioned at the sink area and the things that were still on the table. "But you don't have to help with all of this. I like to clean when I'm stressed, so I want to do this. My brother is like that, too. It's a Bartowski trait. Thank you for being here." There was no need to put things off another year. "Maybe Devon and I can come see you next month. Before then, I can look through your wedding planning book and be ready to help with all of the decisions in our next planning session."

She said 'help' because she wasn't going to be making the decisions, and she was ok with that. She just needed some time for everything to sink in. Actually, it might be entertaining to see who was really in charge on the big day, the gun-wielding maid-of-honor or the awesome mother-of-the-groom.

Everyone agreed with Ellie's suggested plan. Devon said he'd take his parents to the airport. Ellie hugged her future in-laws goodbye before they left. Then, she filled her wine glass and headed back to her bedroom. As much as cleaning was a stress-reliever, she'd leave the kitchen mess until Devon returned. Cleaning was a Bartowski trait, but soon she would be a Woodcomb so she needed to train her future husband. More wine first.

Returning to curl up on her bed again, Ellie's curiosity got the better of her. She stopped at Chuck and Sarah's closed door.

"Wow. These search parameters look great. You were already going to do this, weren't you?"

"Yes. My orders are to make sure there are no more security surprises, which to me means looking for your mom and dad. We didn't know your roommate and your ex-girlfriend were traitors. We don't know where your parents have been—how they might be used to get to you."

_Orders?_ _Traitors?_ The newspaper said Bryce died in a bank robbery. Jill was evil, but that was just a description of someone you hated because of what they did to your family. Why would anyone be trying to get to Chuck?

"Mom is a lost cause because it's been so long without any word. Dad used to send cards, but one year they just stopped."

"You said something a few months ago, on your birthday. In your desk, I found a card with a disconnected phone number. It wasn't a prepaid number. Even a disconnected number is a lead with a paper trail. For him, I thought the search would take a couple hours to run. I was only waiting until after the holidays because I thought you'd want to talk about it first. After what happened tonight—no more waiting."

"Some of these conditions could be found in public records. For that I could use the SETIatHome. For the others, I could task a bunch of N—"

"Chuck," Sarah interrupted. The bedroom door opened. That put Ellie face-to-face with the other woman. Sarah had caught her snooping.

"How are you feeling, Ellie? Was that the Woodcombs I heard at the front door?" Sarah opened the door fully letting Ellie in. Chuck continued typing away at the computer. He gave Ellie a quick wave and a smile, without looking her way or slowing down from what he was doing.

"I'm fine. Yes, that was Devon taking his parents to the airport. What are you two doing? You know, I don't actually expect you to be able to find my crazy dad. That's ok. It's sweet of you to try. But I definitely don't want you getting in trouble."

Sarah reassured her, "We're not doing anything that could get us in trouble. At least I think not. I don't know what this SETI thing is, but I trust Chuck."

Chuck kept typing as he talked. "It's a Berkeley project that was started when I was in college. SETI is the "Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence." The AtHome project is one of the first and one of the biggest distributed computing platforms. It uses personal computers that are connected to the Internet to analyze radio signals from space. Since I went to Stanford, and Berkeley is a rival, when I was in school, I figured out a way to hack into their expanding computing resources. It means we effectively have access to a supercomputer that I can I switch what it does for a little bit."

Ellie used her big-sister tone. "Chuck, are you doing that again? I thought you stopped."

Sarah tried to stick up for her man. "Chuck is a genius with computers. You know that."

Ellie didn't back off. "It's more than that. When he was in college, I knew he did stuff. Never anything bad, like stealing government secrets, because that's not Chuck, but I assume they were things that would get him in trouble. He thinks I didn't know, but he told Morgan, and that little man is not the steel trap he thinks he is. I thought it stopped when Stanford screwed him over."

Chuck said in surprise, "You knew about 'Piranha?'"

Sarah's eyes crossed, she tilted sideways, and she eased herself to sit on the bed. Chuck turned from the computer, rolled his chair over to the bed and her side, and asked with concern, "Sarah, are you alright? That one looked bad."

Ellie didn't know Sarah had seizures like that, but apparently Chuck did. As a doctor she felt she ought to know that a friend that shared her apartment had a medical condition so she could treat it if there was an emergency. Maybe that was part of why she switched jobs. She really ought to get Sarah's medical history.

Sarah took a deep breath in and out. "I'm fine. I just got dizzy a second. Ellie, I assure you Chuck is not going to do anything he shouldn't." She stressed, "Right, Chuck." That wasn't a question.

"Right. Excuse me…" He pecked Sarah on the cheek and rolled back in front of the computer to continue whatever he had been doing.

Sarah stood back up and placed a reassuring hand on Ellie's shoulder. "Don't worry about your wedding any more tonight, or about us. It'll be fine. I promise. Chuck's a smart guy. He can find your father. And, when your father hears about the wedding, he'll be there for you."

"Come on. Do you really think he's going to make it?" Ellie asked.

"I guarantee it."

Ellie smiled at her future sister, as a 'thank you' for wanting to try, and left, returning to the kitchen to refill her glass. Walking by Chuck and Sarah's room again, she heard Chuck say, "That worked. I got it." To say Ellie was skeptical was an understatement. It had to be something else. There was no way a Buy More Assistant Manager, even one as smart as her brother, could find their dad that fast after all of these years. It had to be something else, but she didn't want to know the details, so she kept walking.

* * *

A/N: Canon/AU parallel questions…  
When is this? In the show, the Jill arc (part 2 of this story) was 2x06-2x08. Woody and Honey Woodcomb, the first Woodcomb wedding planning session, and the seed of the idea for the search for Stephen Bartowski were all in "Chuck vs the Sensei," 2x09.

What about Casey's sensei? The entire thing would have been trivial if Chuck flashed on 1919 Mulholland Drive earlier. (i.e. if they shared information with the Intersect instead of keeping him in the dark.) In this AU, either Chuck or Sarah (or both) could have flashed on Ty Bennet's dojo earlier. That would mean Chuck would be at the planning session, not that it would get any better.

In this story, what are Sarah's plans? Think about what happened in 2x10 in the show: more family matters.

Song:  
"Chapel of Love" by The Dixie Cups


	11. Pacing

_Published July 31, 2020_

A/N: It's not a fake relationship, but there is no fake or non-fake cuddling preempted by "personal" plans.

* * *

_**December 20, 2008**_

Sarah finished another lap between her bedroom and the front door. Her dad wasn't late, yet. Chuck joked with her a couple weeks ago that her driving speed could make the Earth spin faster, which meant her new car with a _slower _top speed than a Porsche gave her less power to manipulate time. He had them watch _Superman_ to explain how changing the Earth's rotational speed could influence time, make it stop, or even make it go backwards. She wondered what her pacing was doing—whether it would make her dad later or give him more time. She wasn't even sure what she wanted. She wanted to see him, but expected him to not show. Did he need more time, or should she get it over with? Maybe it didn't matter since she was walking both ways. When in bed that night, she'd have to check with Chuck how it worked.

Before she could complete another leg from the front door to the bedroom, Ellie intercepted her by linking her arm.

"Ellie, don't worry about me waiting for my dad. He's probably not even going to come. You should be with your dad."

"He'll be fine in the kitchen with Chuck. It's funny watching Dad try to show Chuck how to cook, when he wasn't much of one before he left. I'm constantly having to hold myself back from just taking over. It's sweet that they are making pancakes, but now they are arguing about whether to make ones that look like the Death Star or to dig through the cabinets to find the character molds my brother was so proud of giving me for Christmas when he was ten. Unfortunately, Chuck knows I would never get rid of anything used for cooking, and Dad remembers them. I'm staying out of it, which is perfect because instead of you helping me, _I_ can help _you_ for a change. Come on, let's have a seat."

Ellie led them over to the couch. Sarah wasn't sure how it would change the time effects. This ability wasn't like she remembered from high school physics, so it probably was just a science fiction thing. She wasn't sure if she could alter time enough anyway. If her nervousness was being noticed, though, she needed to sit down.

On the sofa, Ellie turned to focus on Sarah. Chuck's sister's was beaming—so much different than the night before. When Devon's parents were there, her dad being gone hit her hard. Now things were different.

Chuck had taken Sarah's initial search algorithm and made it better. He used an NSA data center and some kind of voluntary computing system available over the Internet to find his dad in minutes. She and he went to get him early this morning and had him in Echo Park before dinner.

Initially, Ellie had not reacted like she wanted her dad there, yelling about the food he never brought them more than a decade before. Then, she became concerned about what Sarah and Chuck must have done to find him. After some reassurances, she calmed down, and the plan for this evening's cooking lesson was formulated. Devon was working a double. Sarah had to get ready for her own "daddy-daughter date." That left the Bartowski children alone with their own dad for the evening.

Despite coming through for Ellie by finding her dad, Sarah was unsure of where that left the two women. A few weeks ago, before the double dates with Jill, a few of Sarah's atypical skills were revealed. Then, she barged in with a gun to evacuate the apartment before going off to save Morgan. Now, she was finding a long-lost relative. Her CIA affiliation couldn't stay a _complete_ secret for long. It had to be obvious to Ellie that Chuck knew some of it, even if she couldn't know how important her brother was because of the Intersect in his head. Sarah just hoped she hadn't lost her friend. With how close Ellie and Chuck were, she was going to be in Sarah's life for the rest of it.

Ellie clasped Sarah's hands between them and softly chucked. That eliminated Sarah's concern about whether she scared the other woman. Ellie put a hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I shouldn't have done that. You're just always so calm and collected. So sure of yourself. So capable. You found _my_ crazy dad even though I hadn't seen him since right after I graduated from high school. Even if he disappears again before my actual wedding, I am so incredibly thankful for what you managed to do. I don't know the situation with your dad, but he's coming here tonight to take you someplace really nice, without me having to reciprocate and somehow find him. Yet you are…freaking out." She laughed again, despite the hand at her face.

Sarah knew that Ellie wasn't laughing _at_ her in a mean way. The doctor was both happy and surprised. What else should Sarah expect because she had been so guarded about her past? Ellie didn't know the reality of Sarah's parental situation. The reality was Sarah's dad might still not show. Chuck knew the truth about her dad's and her criminal pasts because she told him over a year ago. She had spent the entire ride to Chuck's dad's trailer reviewing details about her dad to Chuck so he wouldn't flash on the ex-con when they met. She wasn't a bit surprised that Ellie underestimated how uncomfortable this entire situation made Sarah.

Sarah loved her dad. That didn't mean she trusted him.

Sarah spoke quietly to Ellie to not distract the antics of the two chefs in the kitchen. They were debating an Episode 4 design against the more complicated Episode 6 Death Star and whether that was even possible with pancake batter. "I'm sorry. I should have explained before. Chuck knows this, but you should, too. My parents are like yours. They weren't there for me when I was growing up."

Ellie responded, voice full of understanding, like Sarah would expect from someone with a good bedside manner. "I figured it was something like that because you never talk about them. It's a good thing you fell in with us and became a part of _this_ family."

"Yes, it is," Sarah smiled.

Ellie said, "I'm sure it was really awful for you, by yourself without a brother or sister, even with it not being as long as it was for Chuck and me."

Ellie couldn't know about her sister, Molly, but maybe if she understood how long Sarah had been without parents… "Actually…"

"What?"

"When my mom threw out my dad, I chose to go with the fun parent, not the good parent. This happened before I was eight. I haven't seen my grandmother since a short while later because she also threw out her son. I didn't know that I should have at least stayed with her. I don't think my dad is in touch with his mom, either. I don't even know what ever happened to her."

"That's horrible. At least you had your dad. It's not like he left you right after you graduated from high school." Sarah could put up a bluff, but she didn't want to do that to the sister of the person she trusted most in the world. Ellie saw the expression on Sarah's face. "That too? Worse? What happened?"

"My dad left me alone when I was still in high school."

"Ok, it's not a contest, but you win. That is _worse_ than what happened to Chuck and me. He was still in high school, but I wasn't and we still had each other. You know about our Mother's Day. Not knowing where your parents are is hard."

This was more than Sarah wanted to share, but Chuck already knew. If she talked to anyone else about these things, she wanted it to be Ellie. Maybe if her matron-of-honor knew some little bits of her actual background, she'd better understand why Sarah wanted so much to be part of _this_ family. It wouldn't matter if she never found out more about what she did. "Oh, I knew exactly where my dad was. I haven't seen or talked to him in over ten years."

"How did you… You know what? That's not important. It's no wonder you're a wreck." She leaned back and took an appraising look at her outfit. "Well, not that kind of wreck. I wish I had half the beautiful outfits you have. Are you going to be ok with your dad?"

This is part of why she avoided this line of discussion so long. She had revealed too much of her sob story, opening the possibility that there was a real danger, when she could easily handle her dad. Any problems would _not_ be physical. Chuck had already reassured her that he was there for her to help deal with the _emotional_ fall-out. Sarah always liked to think that she could handle anything, but with Chuck at her side, she really could. Ellie didn't know that Sarah knew exactly where her dad was the entire time because he was in prison. Sarah didn't want to reveal that much right there when her dad was possibly coming.

Even though Sarah didn't answer Ellie's question, the concerned woman said, "I forgot who I was talking to for a second. Multiple black belts. Of course you'll be alright. You said Chuck knows?" Sarah nodded. "Then you'll definitely be alright. He would never let you do anything dangerous… Correction. A few weeks ago he let you go rescue his bearded friend. To me, that seems very dangerous. My worry-wart brother would never let you do anything _you couldn't handle_."

Sarah smiled thinking about Chuck, nodded, and joined Ellie for a brief hug. Sarah shouldn't be surprised, but Ellie had made her feel better. She looked at the time on her phone. There were still a few minutes. Her dad wasn't late yet.

Ellie caught Sarah checking the time and twisted her mouth in a teasing smile. "It's nice to know that my best friend is human and is a tiny bit less than one hundred percent unflappable."

Sarah's relaxed, pleasant expression dropped to a frown. On one hand it felt good to be a best friend to anyone, especially to someone she thought she had been scaring away lately, but she felt guilty it wasn't reciprocated. Ellie was Sarah's really good friend, but "best friend" was reserved for the curly-haired man who happened to be the same person who kept her feet warm at night.

Ellie read Sarah's face and became concerned, "What is it, Sarah?"

"Thank you for calling me your best friend. You're such an important friend to me, I feel a little bad you're not mine. _Chuck's_ my best friend. Isn't Devon yours?"

The other woman wasn't upset, breaking out a big smile, "It's wonderful that you think of my brother that way. The best marriages have husbands and wives that are great friends, but by my definition, husbands and fiancés don't count as best friends."

That was a little disturbing to Sarah. "Does that mean my future best-friend-in-law is my best friend?"

"Your what?"

"Morgan. Chuck's best friend. He said we're going to be best-friends-in-law."

Ellie laughed. "No."

"Good. He's always been Chuck's best friend, so I'm fine with not being _Chuck's_ best friend, but I don't think of Morgan as _my_ best friend. When he comes over for a game night with Chuck, I'd much rather talk with you than watch them play video games. Last time, when you had a late shift, Morgan tried to get me to team up with him against Chuck in some shooting game, but I don't want to be against Chuck, even in a game. He said it wouldn't be fair if I teamed up with Chuck."

"You do realize that 'best-friend-in-law' isn't a real thing, right?"

"I wasn't sure, but when Morgan first told me, it seemed important to him." Sarah thought Ellie still wasn't laughing at her, but she sure thought the topic was funny. Sarah just wanted to understand.

"You shouldn't believe half of what he says. If I did, I might have believed him when he said you destroyed the building that happened to collapse the night you rescued him. He said it went down because of beams you shot from your eyes."

Sarah rolled her eyes (which couldn't fire laser beams). That sounded like one of Chuck's science fiction theories. It was as absurd as the one she was thinking about a few minutes earlier that she could speed up time by walking fast and changing the rotation of the Earth. "I don't have heat vision like Superman."

"If you weren't marrying my brother, I'd be concerned about you knowing who has that superpower. About the definition of 'best' friends, don't worry about it. I know I'm splitting hairs because in this case, I want to. Family members are exempt from the title. The two of us, we have a window because we're not family, yet. I wanted you to be my maid-of-honor because _you're my best friend_. We haven't had a successful planning session yet, so that still applies. Soon, we'll be sisters. You might still be my best friend by one definition, but that'll be a less important title, kind of like 'husband' will be Devon's more important title."

Sarah felt so full of love. The Bartowskis were good at that. Moments like that one made it difficult for her to be content waiting to officially become a Bartowski. Most of the time, she had no problem waiting for a ceremony. Her heart was already promised to Chuck forever. She didn't need a piece of paper. However at that moment, she wanted to be a Bartowski more than anything, in all the possible ways.

Sarah beamed and wrapped her arms around her future sister. "I like that. That means I can call you my best friend, too." Ellie returned the hug harder than before. That kind of Bartowski hug was especially welcome now, no matter what it did to the top of her dress. "Does this mean I should stop calling you my matron-of-honor. You're not married, even though you will be."

Ellie didn't let go and said, "It doesn't matter. Best friend and matron-of-honor work for me."

"Thanks for helping me understand. Chuck is rubbing off on me. I know superheroes. and I know I'm spiraling. I also know this is weird to talk about. Morgan makes such a big deal about it, and he's important to Chuck, which makes him important to me. I don't want to say the wrong thing."

Ellie lightly laughed in the hug. "There are limits, even between best friends. I do _not_ want to know about other types of rubbing you and my brother do. Superhero abilities are at least PG rated." Ellie pulled back and looked her straight in the eyes. "Don't try to tell Morgan that best-friend-in-law isn't a thing. Best friends like us don't need to worry about the details of 'friends-in-law.'" Her best friend hugged her again. "Chuck can be your actual best friend, but you introduce him as your future husband, not your best friend. That means you can call somebody else your best friend, until she's officially your sister."

That made perfect sense to Sarah. She never called Chuck her asset—not even to Graham. He was more important than that. To Graham and Beckman, he was "Chuck." Later, when he was allowed to be her boyfriend, he didn't stop being her protectee. A person can have two titles, but you use the more important one. To Ellie, Sarah said, "I prefer the idea of you as my best friend than anyone else. A few years ago, I was good friends with two women I worked with, and one of them betrayed me." Sarah saw Ellie's eyes get big, so Sarah smirked. "No, I didn't shoot her. The other woman was Carina. She used to be my best friend, but that was before I knew Chuck. Carina doesn't understand things like marriage and family. That's why I told her when she broke up with Morgan a few weeks ago that if it came down to it, I'd be on his side, not hers."

That confused Ellie. "They were really together? I never met Carina. Last year, a week after she was in town, I heard some of the idiots who work at the Buy More describe her as someone too beautiful for the store which is why she was never around. I wasn't sure what the truth was because I've only heard Morgan's version, and you never know what he embellishes. If he was to be believed about everything, he took me to his prom, not my pillow, and I'm sitting next to a superhero."

Sarah sighed. "I don't claim to ever have understood Carina and Morgan. Something was actually there, though. Carina has never cared about a guy enough to call me like she did a few weeks ago. She was genuinely worried about him. Afterwards, the feelings scared her so she bailed on the entire…whatever. I guess they were together, which they managed even though they hadn't seen each other in over a year. Supposedly there were phone calls, but it's best not to think what those were about. Carina knows she's not to mess with Morgan anymore because he deserves a better relationship than she can provide. I told Morgan you're off limits because you're taken. Now, maybe he'll get together with someone that respects him and appreciates his loyalty, unlike either Anna or Carina."

"If you say so. If he starts creeping me out again, I'm letting my _best friend_ handle him. Actually, if he does behave, I might start thinking you have a mind-control superpower."

The both laughed, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door. The distraction had worked. Sarah had stopped pacing and counting the seconds before her dad showed. After Ellie answered the door, Sarah would introduce her boyfriend and her best friend to her dad. Those were two titles of people she never could introduce to him when she was growing up, because there was no one she could call either of those things.

"Sarah, aren't you going to get it?"

"I thought you would. It's your door," Sarah said.

"This is your home, too. You can answer it. We both know it's for you."

"But I've never had anyone knock on the door for me."

Ellie stood up, pulling Sarah with her, and gave her a little nudge. "Go ahead. Answer the door."

Sarah took a deep breath and walked over. She answered the door to her first real home for the first guest to see her. Her dad actually was there. He was right in front of her, and she still could barely believe he made it.

"Hi, Dad."

"Darling."

Sarah gave him a welcome hug and a peck on the cheek. She invited him inside for a moment. Ellie was right there, and Chuck rushed over. Mr. Bartowski was following a little behind because he stopped to move the frying pan to a different burner and turn off the stove.

"Dad, this is my _fiancé,_ Chuck Bartowksi." (She loved calling him that. The only thing better would be "husband," but she learned her lesson about that back in January. Just because she thought of them as good as married, didn't mean she could say they were husband and wife.) "Chuck, this is my dad, Jack Burton." Her smile was all teeth. She couldn't keep her happiness contained. The two most important men in her life were meeting each other.

Chuck extended his hand to her dad. "Mr. Burton, Sir, it's a real pleasure."

"Likewise, Charlie. Please call me Jack. I don't believe I've seen Angel this happy since before she was ten." His face became serious as he was trying "the dad" look. In high school, Sarah was gangly and awkward, so he had never had the chance before. He wasn't very convincing.

Chuck was still rattled, so she sent a quick glare her dad's way to get him to stop it. Her dad stopped immediately, and Sarah's huge smile returned. Sarah knew her entire face was glowing as she continued the introductions. "And this is his sister, my _best friend_, Ellie."

The two of them shook hands. Ellie said the nicest thing. "Sarah's been a part of this family for over a year, and it's wonderful to meet part of hers from before she was part of ours." Sarah almost wished Ellie would meet the rest of her family—her mom and her sister—like Chuck had, but that wasn't meant to be. Even the CIA didn't know they existed.

Fortunately, her dad's expression hadn't flinched the slightest at the name Sarah. He probably thought it was an alias, so he was going along with some long con. She had a lot of aliases growing up. This name was official as one could get. She received pay checks from the government that said 'Sarah Walker.' True, She went to her high school reunion as Chuck's Jenny Burton, but the rest of the time, she was Chuck's Sarah.

The other person in the apartment finally joined them. Chuck took over the introductions, which was appropriate because it was his dad. "Jack, this is my dad, Stephen Bartowski."

The two long-absent fathers shook hands. Mr Bartowski awkwardly looked down like he sometimes did. The man wasn't outgoing like his son, something that Chuck used a lot in a retail job and part of why Chuck was seemingly friends with everyone. It made sense though, since Mr Bartowski lived alone in a trailer for who knows how many years.

Then something happened that Sarah hadn't expected: a flash. She hadn't expected to see someone _other_ than Chuck flash.

She had told Chuck about the scar on her dad's right wrist because her dad had an extensive rap sheet and all scars and tattoos were in criminal records. When Graham had arrested him the last time, it was not the first time she was left at home alone. If it hadn't been Federal charges that last time, California's three strikes law would have taken effect on the Burton alias.

The surprising thing is Chuck wasn't the one who flashed. When Chuck's dad was looking down like he tended to do, he saw the scar on her dad's right wrist. Mr Bartowski blinked rapidly a few times and then leaned sideways into his son, who steadied him.

"It's good to meet you." He pointed back to the kitchen. "I'm sorry, but I have to go back and make sure the burner is off." He left quickly, looking over his shoulder once.

Sarah hadn't been in the kitchen but she knew the stove was not on. She saw him turn it off. She couldn't be 100% positive it was a flash. She'd only seen Chuck flash. He handled it better than she did and differently than what she just witnessed. This maybe-flash hadn't caused Chuck's dad to go cross-eyed. He walked around in halting steps, so maybe losing his balance like that wasn't very unusual for him. What she witnessed wasn't quite the same as Chuck's flash, and there were only two human Intersects, so it couldn't be a flash. She had to be imagining something was there that wasn't. Maybe Chuck's dad was just an introvert who wanted an excuse to get away from the group of five at the door, so he made up an excuse about the stove.

Or maybe she needed to stay in the apartment to protect Chuck. Sarah started to say, "Maybe—"

She didn't get far, before Ellie cut her off. "No, Sarah. You two have a nice dinner. The kids are going to catch up with the dads tonight. Mr Burton—"

"That's Jack for you, too."

"_Jack_, have a good time catching up with your amazing daughter. I'm happy I got to meet my best friend's dad."

Chuck and her dad shook hands again, and her dad quietly said something, probably trying to act like a father for the first time in over a decade. Her dad was such a good con man, she was surprised his judgmental look was so obvious. It was probably an intentional message to his future son-in-law. Sarah really couldn't hear what was said, though. She could just tell Chuck too it seriously.

Her head was swimming. _There was a chance Chuck's dad flashed. That couldn't be._

Before she left were her dad, Sarah gave Chuck a solid kiss. He turned red, and she knew it was her fault. Chuck was used to such displays in front of his sister, but not her dad. She really needed something to ground her, and a shot of Chuck did that. He'd survive. When she went into the courtyard with her dad, he said he'd call them a car, but she said she'd drive. She needed to regain some control. One way to do that for her was to take a steering wheel.

At new Lotus Elise, her dad said, "Nice, car. You must have been doing well, since I've been out of the game."

"I don't do that anymore, Dad."

"What is it you do, _Sarah_?" he said, sitting down.

"I sell frozen yogurt."

"I know that doesn't pay enough for this car, Darling. Is is related to the snook?"

"Stay away from Chuck. He knows all about what you and I used to do, and he loves me despite that. I didn't always work at the Orange Orange, but now I'm happier, living in a home with my fiancé and with my best friend. You better buckle up."

Her dad scoffed and said, "What are you? The seatbelt police?"

"No. You should hold on, too. Chuck's hand is sometimes sore from holding on so tight."

He pulled on his seatbelt. "There. It's on. I'll be fine."

A few seconds later, they were rounding the first corner, and her dad's grip was tighter than Chuck's most of the time. The Lotus couldn't go as fast as the Porsche, but it cornered better.

* * *

A/N: Sarah started off worried about whether her dad would show and about what Ellie thought of her. Those were fine, but now she has a new problem. We know what Sarah saw, but she wasn't sure.

Different from the show, Chuck doesn't follow her to the restaurant to see what her "persona"l plans are. He knows those and has his own dad to deal with.

Song:  
"You're My Best Friend" by Queen


	12. Help Me

_Published August 1, 2020_

A/N: Two dads. Now what?

* * *

_**December 22, 2008**_

Ellie was stressing out, but her top coping technique was complete. With the dishes washed, dried, and re-shelved, she'd have to find something else to do.

Two nights ago, Sarah had dinner with her dad, while Chuck and Ellie stayed home with their own. Last night was the night for the engaged couples and the women's dads. Ellie cooked for Devon and her dad. Chuck and Sarah had dinner out at some hotel with Jack Burton, who for some reason had a different last name than Sarah. Maybe Walker was her mom's name, though that would be odd because, as Ellie had recently been told, Sarah left her mom and went with her dad when she was very young.

Before that first night, Sarah was nervous about seeing her dad, whom she hadn't seen in years. From what Ellie could tell, it went ok. However, seemingly unrelated, Sarah didn't seem to warm-up to the senior Bartowski. Whatever it was, it went both ways.

On this third day, the six of them were supposed to all go out to dinner, all together. Chuck and Sarah had been in especially good spirits early. Later, the good mood was gone when Sarah told Ellie that her mysterious father was going to be unable to make it. An hour after that, Sarah was furious. The only other time Ellie had seen her friend so serious and focused was last month when she ordered the apartment evacuation and saved Morgan. This time, Sarah said she wouldn't be joining them at dinner either, She took off, wearing an all-black outfit (which Ellie had never seen) and carrying two big duffel bags. Chuck raced after her, not providing an explanation.

Due to the sudden change of plans, the night ended up being another dinner at home with only Devon, Ellie, and her long-lost dad. On the surface everything was fine, but they all knew that evening wasn't what was originally intended. After dinner, Ellie cleaned to try to de-stress, and Devon listened to her crazy dad say how he invented parts of the TV and complain about his college roommate. Whomever that Teddie was, he couldn't have been worse than Bryce was to Chuck.

Fortunately, Chuck was now on a happier path with Sarah than he was after the Stanford fiasco. She gave him an incredible amount of confidence, and they were completely devoted to one another.

Ellie's mysterious best friend didn't talk about her past. Until a few days ago, Ellie would have assumed Sarah's dad was dead, but having met him, she assumed something else was going on. Whatever Sarah's old job was in DC, it was something in which she dealt with almost anything, but whatever was happening now, it was too much for her. With Chuck inseparable from Sarah, he was getting pulled in, too. Ellie didn't want anything bad to happen to either her brother or her best friend.

Ellie figured she should rescue Devon from another tall tale about how her dad's ideas could have reshaped the world. Her dad was a genius at computers, but then so was Chuck. People should know their limitations and enjoy life with their family and friends—not wallow in bitterness about what could have been. You don't want to miss it when someone like Sarah comes along. No wonder Mom left.

She walked over to suggest a movie when the front door flew open. This time, Sarah didn't have a gun. Instead, she was supporting her dad to get him inside. He didn't look drunk, though.

"We're almost there, Dad."

"I"m fine, Darling. You said it was just a flesh wound."

"I didn't remove the bullet, and it still needs to be stitched up. Chuck." she called behind her. "Clear the table so we can lay him down."

Chuck scampered around them and went to the table. Since Ellie had been cleaning, it was already clear. He moved a chair from the end, out of the way.

As Sarah helped her dad to the table, she issued orders. "Devon, get yours and Ellie's emergency medical bags from the closet. Ellie, we need a bowl with boiling water and clean towels."

Devon gave a confused acknowledgement and hurried to the back. Ellie was too stunned to move because a gunshot victim that just was brought to her home, so Chuck started boiling some water. After Jack laid down on the table, Sarah pulled his shirt open. Ellie's training kicked in, and she rushed to get some towels from the linen closet.

When Ellie returned to the dining room table, Sarah was rifling through one of the medical bags that Devon had brought from the back. She withdrew a scalpel, tweezers, gauze, iodine, and forceps. Devon stood by her and asked, "Sarah, what are you doing?"

Sarah stopped, looked up at him and took a step back. "Sorry, I know what's needed, but I haven't done this in almost two years. I remember last month you talking about patching up a bullet wound. Although, you haven't _removed_ one outside of an emergency room, in a situation like this. So, if you want me to do this…"

Devon gave her a surprised look. "No, let the professionals do this." He took the closest position next to Jack's left shoulder, where he _had been shot_.

Sarah stepped into second position to hand things to Devon, where Ellie was planning on assisting. Devon scrubbed-in for surgery more often, and she almost never did because she did more research, so he should be primary. However, Ellie didn't understand why any doctor wouldn't be the obvious choice to assist him. Sarah noticed Ellie standing there and said, "Right. You're going to do this. It's fine, as long as you're sure. It's not a head injury."

Jack said to Ellie, "No. It's only a 'flesh wound.' Angel didn't shoot me in the head, though maybe she should have after the bonehead thing I did."

"Quiet, Dad. They aren't cleared. _You_ aren't cleared, so you don't even know what you are saying."

_Cleared? What _did that mean? And why had Sarah removed a bullet a couple years ago. Ellie thought Jack called his daughter Angel. Did that mean Sarah shot her dad? Staying in doctor-mode, Ellie took the role as second. Sarah was right in that Ellie worked more around the brain with special equipment, but she was the doctor and knew what Devon needed. She didn't know what Sarah used to do in DC, but she was pretty sure she wasn't an MD.

When Sarah stepped back, Chuck put his arm around her for comfort. He looked away from all sight of blood, but Sarah remained completely focused on where Devon was working. Ellie's dad looked like he was trying to stare a hole in Sarah. Whenever their issue was before, this situation had made him downright hostile, but fortunately silent.

The gunshot wound was already bandaged, meaning Jack had been given some sort of treatment before they came here. The bullet was still inside the shoulder, though. Any gunshot wound looked nasty, but the one in front of Ellie looked relatively benign compared to what it could be. If Sarah had taken the shot, she hit someplace that wasn't vital, which was good. Why would Sarah shoot her dad? Why there? Why did she bring him to the apartment instead of calling 9-1-1?

Devon said, "Sarah, we're doctors. We're required to report gunshot wounds to the authorities."

"Not this time."

Ellie tried to reason with her, "Sarah, just because you're our friend—"

Sarah cut her off, "Ellie, Devon, as _your friend_, I'm telling you not to even try to report this. Any report will disappear from the system. The authorities already know about the gunshot wound. Any public record would be completely erased."

Ellie didn't know how that could happen. Hospitals ran on paper. There would be a record someplace. "Why did you bring him here instead of calling an ambulance?"

"My dad has to leave tonight, for his safety."

That didn't sound legal. "If you care about his safety, why did you shoot him?"

Chuck jumped in, "She did the _Speed_ thing. She shot the hostage."

Ellie didn't get that movie reference. Sarah did understand either. "What do you mean, speed? Tonight had nothing to do with drugs. This wasn't a DEA operation." Sarah's confusion was not knowing he was talking about a movie.

"Remember that movie we watched with Ellie and Devon a few months ago with that bus that had to stay above fifty miles per hour?" Chuck asked, trying to see if she recalled. Ellie knew the movie, of course, but she thought that it was about a bomb on a bus, not a gunshot wound and a hostage.

"Yeah, but when I realized it wasn't very fast, I paid more attention to snuggling with my fiancé than the movie. I thought the bad guy in that movie used a bomb." That was what Ellie remembered.

"There was a scene near the end in which Keanu Reeves shot Jeff Bridges in the leg when Dennis Hopper had him as a hostage."

Sarah said, "Don't say I did what I did because of a movie. A lot of those are ludicrous and full of bad I ideas. They are only worthwhile because of whom I get to lean against. I did what I did tonight to save my dad."

"Of course." Chuck kissed the side of her head. "And then you brought him here because the doctors could take care of him. It's not like—" Ellie was mostly helping Devon, but she caught that look. Chuck started again, "It's not like in an instant or _a flash_ would you know how to remove a bullet." Her look didn't waver. "Look, aren't Devon and Ellie doing a great job." He glanced at where Devon was blotting up excess blood, and he then gulped, puckered his cheeks, and looked away because the sight made him quesy.

Devon was making good progress, about ready to seal up the wound, so he spoke. "The shot in _Speed_ was in the leg. Wouldn't that be safer? Sarah, if you missed, you could've hit something vital."

Sarah said, "I didn't want to make it so he had to use crutches, so I shot his shoulder. That was easy enough."

Ellie thought maybe Chuck was involved, and Sarah was covering for him, but they still had to report this.

"I just remembered!" Sarah pulled a gun from her back waistband. "Chuck, sweetie, could you put this back in the safe."

"Sure." He took the gun and walked to the other side of the sofa. He excused their dad, unlocked the gun safe's number pad (already knowing the code), and put the gun inside. Their dad mumbled something, looked down, shook his head, and then resumed his stare at Sarah.

Devon asked Jack, "Are you allergic to penicillin?"

Sarah answered, "I'm not, but I don't know about him."

"No, I'm not either." Jack said. He looked at Sarah, "Why would you know that I'm not?"

"I don't know if that's even hereditary. You should know for me because _I_ was the one who broke her arm because of that patch of ice, which is when I got penicillin."

"Is that why you used real bullets?" Jack asked with some mirth. I seemed to be in decent spirits considering he had been shot by his own daughter.

Sarah glared at her dad's attempt at teasing. Jack backtracked. "Never mind. Thank you for saving my life, Angel. Thank you all for helping and treating this."

Sarah said, "Promise never to mess with my family again."

"Of course, Darling." Sarah looked skeptical, but let the issue drop.

Devon didn't have something to serve as an anesthetic, but Jack managed the pain while the stitches were put in, probably because he wanted to act tough in front of his daughter. Then he injected Jack with penicillin. After the wound was bandaged over again, Ellie put on a sling that was in her kit on him. Jack looked at Stephen and immediately looked away.

Sarah helped her dad up and out the front. Chuck followed.

At the door, Sarah again addressed the doctors' concern about calling this in. "I know you think you need to report this, but the people who you'd report it to do not have clearance to know about it. They would be pulled away from work for an investigation and would have to go through an extensive background check before they were allowed to resume their duties. You know I did something to save Morgan last month. I _did not_ knock down the building by blowing really hard. However, the person who gave the order already knows what I did tonight. You need to trust me."

Ellie could barely believe it. Until now, she thought that office building collapse being on the same night as the Jill incident was a coincidence. Apparently it was not. It was some top secret operation that Chuck, Sarah, and Morgan were all in the middle of. This time, it was Jack instead of Morgan. If they were going to have things like whatever happened tonight happen more often, she didn't want her brother and best friend in the middle of it. They might be hurt.

Before leaving completely, Sarah sincerely thanked Devon and Ellie with a hug each. It surprised Ellie a lot because Sarah was never the one to initiate with her. Then, she said goodbye with some sadness. The way she said it almost sounded almost final.

Ellie had no idea where they were all going. She hoped they'd weren't leaving for good. It almost seemed like it. Part of her felt like she wasn't doing her duty as a doctor of reporting a gunshot injury right away, but she had to trust Sarah. _Something_ was going on with her. You do anything for family. Ellie didn't understand what was going on—once again—but she believed Sarah when she said the authorities already knew. It was like that movie she saw with Devon a few years ago, which had Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo, _Just Like Heaven_. Your best friend was the person you'd call on to help you steal the body in an emergency. Treating someone with a gunshot wound was less of a crime than that. No one was about to die and no one was haunting the apartment.

Her dad was another story. He always looked a little off-balance and withdrawn—the same odd man that she grew up with. At the moment, he looked extremely upset about the entire situation, which in a way was understandable. Seeing a person who had been shot—shot by his future daughter-in-law—was too much for almost anyone. Sarah wasn't just anyone, though. She was for all practical purposes _already_ family, even though it wasn't legal. Ellie's dad hadn't had the chance to learn to trust his future daughter-in-law that way. Sarah was so much better than Chuck's ex, the Evil One. Sarah made Chuck better and fought for the family—_literally_. Her dad just needed to hang around long enough to realize it.

* * *

A/N: The last three chapters came from the idea that Chuck flashed on Jack in the show. What if Stephan had?

Songs:  
"Help Me" by OR3O  
"MCI Triage Song" (to the tune of "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel) - On YouTube, search for REEyjL-wkaw


	13. Three Intersects

_Published August 2, 2020_

A/N: Ellie doesn't want her two front teeth for Christmas. She wants to learn what is going on with her housemates. Fortunately for her, it's Christmas Eve. This and the next three chapters are on that momentous day. If you need help getting into the Christmas spirit, see the Christmas song selection at the end of each chapter.

Here's a few things that you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Bryce is dead. (*waiting for cheering to die down*) With no Black Friday 2007 hand-off, Fulcrum knows nothing about the Buy More. They're preoccupied due recent events.

* * *

_**December 24, 2008**_

Times like this made Chuck wish he had a game face to put on. He had a video game face, but that wasn't what he needed at the moment. Earlier, Big Mike had rallied the troops for the "biggest shopping day of the year." Chuck was fairly certain that was Black Friday, but on Christmas Eve, he wasn't going to quibble with a man dressed as Santa Claus.

Chuck could barely believe they were trying to bring in people on Christmas Eve to tell Santa what they wanted him to bring down the chimney. If they were going to do this, a month ago would have been better. It was really late to visit Santa. By the time the store opened, it would be Christmas day in Tokyo, so the real Santa would be busy delivering gifts. That's how time zones worked. He wasn't the expert, with kids of his own who dreamed of dancing sugar plums. He hoped his and Sarah's eventual kids had better tastes than that—if they ever got the Intersect out of their heads so they could have kids and not bring them into the spy-world. No one knew if that was even possible, so that met it was only the two of them, for now.

The store opening wasn't the most worrisome thing. After Chuck's shift at the Buy More, Christmas Eve night back at the apartment was going to be awkward.

Two nights ago, Sarah took her father, Jack, to the two doctors she most trusted to be patched up. Beckman had been heartless, trying to arrest him for doing what she wanted. Sarah didn't want to risk whatever Beckman did next, so she got him out of town. Years before, Graham had saved Jack's life by arresting him, but it was better than Beckman's plan of making a terrorist mad and hanging Jack out to dry before then arresting him again. Considering there were Constitutional Amendments about fair trials and unreasonable punishments, even Casey didn't like what she was doing.

The day after the con, Beckman debriefed Team Intersect. Sarah didn't hide what she had done, and Chuck really let Beckman have it. Beckman chose to ignore what Sarah had done to protect her dad. If she pushed it, the government's involvement in a con could come out in the hearing for Jack's initial parole violation of going overseas. Right after the call, Casey signaled his respect with a grunt. He also said the government burning family members that way was Un-American. Sarah showed her appreciation to Chuck that night in a more amorous fashion.

Chuck and Sarah had slept in Castle the last couple nights. Sarah felt horrible for putting Ellie and Devon in such a bad position. She also was certain Chuck's dad, who had witnessed the makeshift ER, wouldn't be comfortable with her being there. Sarah wanted him to stay with Ellie and not run off because of Sarah's presence. She told Chuck he should go home to see his dad, but he refused to leave her. Chuck called his sister a couple times with short messages. On that first night, he said they were ok, but not coming back. On the next day, he verified that the person that held her dad hostage was in custody, the authorities knew _exactly_ what Sarah did, and there were _zero _problems. Despite that, Chuck and Sarah would not be coming home until today, Christmas Eve. Chuck was scheduled to work open until the holiday's early close. Sarah's shift ended at the same time, so they'd go home together for a family dinner. He jokingly guaranteed no surprise engagements this time since both Bartowski siblings were already engaged. Chuck hoped the bad guys would be celebrating the holiday so he wasn't going to be pulled into some CIA emergency, last-minute.

Sarah was still hung up on the idea that she saw Chuck's dad flash the other day, however impossible that was. On their full day away from home, Sarah had Chuck use his computer skills to look for any sign of his dad in old research records. The name Bartowski wasn't there. He did find some obscure Tron references, but that movie was popular with so many computer nerds in the early 80's, it could mean anything.

He just needed to finish one last shift before the future Woodcombs, the future Bartowskis, and Chuck's dad got together on the "night of peace." Big Mike had told all Buy More employees to be ready for anything, but Chuck was sure he was talking about the store, not what was coming after that.

Chuck was over by "the hole," away from the bad aim of the elves who were spraying fake snow in front of Santa's village. He heard a knock on the outside door and saw Ellie waving, with Devon and Dad behind her.

"Hey, what's going on?" Chuck asked while letting them in.

Ellie responded with a cheery smile. "Since you said you're working today, and we haven't seen you since…you know…I wanted to come over. Also, we decided we'd beat the rush and take advantage of the friends and family discount."

Ellie's good spirits weren't shared. Devon looked uncomfortable, and Chuck's dad looked like he didn't want to be there. A few days ago, he had said he should come by the store to do some Christmas shopping, since he hadn't expected to need to do any. Now, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

Chuck said, "Come in. Come in. You know I have to get ready for the wave of desperate shoppers that we get each year on this day, but of course you're allowed in early."

Ellie looked around, "Where's Sarah?"

"The Orange Orange doesn't open until noon. Maybe we can all head over to Subway before that for any early lunch." Public would be good. He paused for a second because he noticed his blonde beauty joining them from outside. She had seen them on surveillance from Castle and had decided to come over. "You know what? You should talk to Sarah. Here she is now."

"Sarah!" Ellie said as she threw her arms around the other woman. At least that confirmed that Sarah shouldn't be worried about _that_ Bartowski. "Is everything ok with you and…you know? I wasn't sure, since you haven't been back home."

Sarah returned the hug briefly. "He's fine. They put my dad in an awful position, and left it to me to save him, so I got them to back off." Then, she greeted Devon and "Mr Bartowski"—the former with warmth and none for the latter.

Looking between Sarah and her dad, Ellie used her big-sister/makeshift-mom tone. "What is going on with you two? Even before the other night, I thought there was something." To her dad, she asked, "Is this about Sarah finding you? Did you want to spend Christmas alone?"

Ellie was forcing the exact issue Chuck thought might come up that evening in front of the tree. Sarah said, "It's time. Let's go. Home theater room."

Right before the store opened wasn't a convenient moment for a family discussion, but this was something that had been coming for a while. It was more important than his job, which today was selling electronics at raised prices to desperate shoppers. Whenever Chuck complained about the drudgery of the Buy More job to Sarah, she always took the job more seriously than he did. She wanted him to be around to boost the self esteem of wound-be ballerinas. There wouldn't be any of those in the store on Christmas Eve.

He led the group across the showroom towards the back, and Morgan, dressed in costume for the holiday, stopped them. "Oh, thank goodness I found you, Chuck. Anna's having another one of her snits."

"Morgan, buddy, I need you to handle it. In fact, I'm officially deputizing you as my Lieutenant." He knighted the shorter elf by chopping his hand lightly on each shoulder. "There, you're in charge of dealing with everything. We're going to the home theater room. Keep everyone out."

"Wow, Chuck. Thank you. I won't let you down. But why…" He looked behind Chuck to see the other two men and the two women. "Mr Bartowski! It's good to see you. And everyone!" The seriousness of Chuck's order dawned on him. "Alright, then. I've got this." The bearded elf left in his curled shoes to go deal with his ex. She was sitting at the Nerd Herd desk, filing her nails.

In the home theater room, Sarah locked the doors. Ellie sat between her dad and her fiancé on the sofa. Sarah tightly held Chuck's hand as they stood in front of the other three.

Ellie spoke first, "Is someone going to tell me what is going on? Sarah, your dad is really ok, isn't he? I know you have some sort of big secret. Morgan says you have superpowers. While I don't think _that_, I'm starting to think he isn't very far off. When you discovered I always wanted my father at my wedding, you found him within minutes. I know back in DC, you used to have some kind of job in which carrying a gun and rescuing people was an ordinary day. Now, you serve frozen yogurt, which doesn't make sense for someone who went where you did for college. Dad, you left Chuck and me for over a decade. All I know for certain is you two are acting like you don't like each other. You both know something I don't."

Chuck started, "El—"

"Chuck," Sarah cut him off. "It's time for them to know. I'm making a decision in the Field. General Beckman put my father's life at stake and then tried to arrest him. He's safe now, but I'm not letting her jeopardize anyone else in my family while keeping them in the dark. They can be trusted not to spread secret information about our family." This is why Sarah wanted them standing in front of the others. She was in charge, so she wanted to be in a position of authority.

"General?" Ellie questioned in confusion.

Chuck's dad grumbled, "I didn't realize that woman was still involved."

Ellie looked to her dad. "You know who Sarah is talking about? Am I the only person that doesn't know what's going on?"

"I don't." Seeing everyone staring at him, Devon said, "Never mind. Pretend I'm not here."

Sarah squeezed Chuck's nervous, sweaty hand three times. "Ellie, your dad knows things he's not supposed to know."

Ellie wrinkled her forehead. Her dad scoffed and said, "I'm not the only one." To Chuck, that sounded like he was confirming Sarah's theory.

Sarah came to the same conclusion. She simplified it so it didn't sound like science fiction. "Chuck received top secret information a year ago. I saw it too, not realizing what would happen. I remained in LA to protect him."

"What does that mean? You were in the FBI?" Ellie suggested. Chuck hoped Casey never heard the theory that they worked for them.

Sarah didn't exactly answer, saying, "I never said I _stopped_ doing what I did before."

"But I've eaten your hot dogs and frozen dessert."

"Those jobs were covers."

"What does that mean?"

"They're what I do so people don't know I'm a spy."

Chuck's dad squirmed a bit on the sofa. Devon sunk further into one corner to stay out of it. Ellie was even more confused than before, but she sat up, not backing down. "A _spy_? What's that mean?"

"I didn't want to hide it from you and Devon. You were cleared to know a long time ago, if ever required, but the protocol for field agents is to not reveal anything until it's absolutely necessary. I've decided it's now necessary. I'm a spy, and Chuck works with me."

Chuck's dad spoke up, "And her job serving food is a cover, a lie. Just like her and Chuck."

Ellie didn't believe that for a second. She looked directly at her dad. "If you spend ten minutes around Chuck and Sarah together, you'd know what they have is _not_ fake. I could tell the first time Sarah came to dinner at the apartment, over a year ago."

"See," Sarah said to Chuck, poking him lightly in the side. "Ellie, _officially_ Chuck and I were not in a real relationship until he was hired as an analyst a few weeks after we met. I _always_ considered it real. The reason I was sent to LA was that Chuck was suspected of working with Bryce. _I_ was the computer-stealing ninja the day after his birthday party. Your brother had a backup of the Intersect email, which he showed me. I realized right then and there that he was just a nice guy who was caught in the middle of Bryce's betrayal. We went out to dinner the next night. I call it our first date because it started and ended like the best date I'd ever had. In the middle, he saved hundreds of lives. His heroics weren't important to me because I was already in love with him."

"Oh boy. My brother is engaged to a spy, and he's one, too."

"Chuck is _not_ a spy. He's an analyst. We're on the same team." She gave Chuck a quick kiss on the cheek.

Besides the whole 'spy thing,' Ellie had heard something that greatly concerned her. "You mentioned Bryce. What does this have to do with Chuck's horrible college roommate? He slept with Jill, and last month she shot her boyfriend-slash-boss. Was Bryce as unhinged as she was?"

Chuck's dad looked like he wanted to speak, but Chuck stared him down so Sarah could answer. He had wanted to tell Ellie and Devon the truth for a long time, but he had always been overruled. He was sure things would change last month after the discovery of Fulcrum, but nothing happened. In Chuck's opinion, bending over backwards to keep secrets from people who always had your back was foolish. They were better allies than the Beckman. Her behavior with someone who was both a known conman and family member of a human Intersect had been inexcusable. Now, Sarah was taking her own initiative to eliminate the secrets in the family. Chuck wasn't going to let anyone stop her.

Sarah answered Ellie, "Bryce was a spy, but he went rogue. He blew up a research lab, and while trying to escape, he murdered a Federal guard. Bryce was killed while trying to flee, and since that night, we haven't discovered his motivation. We only know he was working with the same enemy organization that we later discovered employed Jill. Bryce emailed copies of the Intersect files he destroyed to Chuck, who has always been a hero, never a traitor. Both the original and backup copies of the email self-destructed."

Ellie had another question. "I don't understand. Since you're still a spy, does this mean you still do what you did before?"

"Not exactly. My primary mandate now is 'Intersect Protection,' meaning my main job is to keep Chuck and me safe. I've expanded my mandate to include the people we care about the most, our families. Before LA, the types of missions I did were very different from what I do now. Now, I'm not tasked around the world because the safety of the Intersect is the top priority."

Chuck's dad finally talked. "Eleanor, they're NSA."

Sarah contradicted that incorrect assertion. "No, Mr Bartowski, Chuck and I work for the CIA."

"The last I heard, the NSA ran the Intersect project. You said General Beckman. Diane Beckman is NSA. You're working in the US. The CIA doesn't do that."

"Bryce was CIA. I was tasked to clean up his mess. Now, it's a joint agency project, with the NSA supervising."

Something clicked in Ellie's brain. "The NSA has military people, right? John isn't in the Reserves, is he?"

Sarah had been leading the briefing, but Chuck figured he should take the bullet on this one. That way, Casey couldn't get mad at Sarah for revealing his cover. "Casey's the third member of Sarah's and my team. He's an active duty Marine officer, assigned to the NSA."

Devon said, "Dude. That's why Sarah put him in charge when you went to rescue Morgan. You're all awesome."

"Honey, this isn't awesome. We don't even know this 'Intersect' is. And Dad, how are you involved?"

He squirmed on the sofa again. "Well, I—"

Chuck said, "Elana Truffaut."

There was no flash. Sarah and Chuck looked at each other in surprise. They were expecting his dad to flash because that name had once caused Chuck to flash. He didn't know why it wouldn't cause his dad to flash. He knew something about the Intersect, and Sarah saw him flash on her dad. Didn't he have an Intersect?

Sarah figured out the problem. "Mr Bartowski, when did you download the Intersect?"

"I, um—"

"Did you download the Intersect in the last ten years?"

Silence. She said, "I bet the intel in your head is older than that. When my alias was Elana Truffaut, I was in Paris, five years ago. My dad was arrested a couple times before I was in high school, so he had a criminal record back then. My guess is sometime around the mid-90's." She held up her finger because of an idea. "Operation Greenback."

Both Chuck and his dad flashed. Chuck said, "That was a CIA/Secret Service/DEA joint operation investigating money laundering." He turned to Sarah, "I didn't know you did that." Her pre-LA background always amazed him.

"I didn't. It started before we were born. After the operation was over, it was a big deal in the Agency, so trainers bragged about it when I was at the Farm. It's public now, but most people don't know about it."

Ellie said with amazement, "Chuck, how did _you_ know what that was?"

He tapped the side of his head and said, "The Intersect. All of the government's secrets were encoded into thousands of subliminal images, and I saw them."

Devon said, "Babe, Chuck went cross-eyed, but your dad just looked like he was having a seizure."

Sarah said, "See, Chuck. I told you I saw him flash the other night." She looked directly at the third human Intersect in the room. "Why do you have an Intersect in your head, like Chuck and I do? I thought Chuck was the first successful human Intersect, but apparently you have an older one."

Chuck's dad wasn't forthcoming. Ellie didn't put up with his reticence. "Dad, is this Intersect thing why you left Chuck and me?"

"I knew I was going to try downloading one and didn't want to risk being around you and Chuck."

Sarah suggested, "What were you? A scientist working on an early version of the Intersect who decided to self-experiment?"

"Something like that," he answered.

"As a doctor who specializes on the brain," Ellie said, "I have to say seizures like that don't look safe at all—"

"It's a _flash_, because of the flash of information," Chuck added.

Ellie looked at her brother with disapproval for interrupting. "This _flash_ is dangerous. Sarah, I saw you have one the other day. It almost knocked you over. Why didn't you _flash_ this time?"

"A flash doesn't happen if you know the information already. I didn't flash this time because I already knew about Operation Greenback. Chuck said one of my old aliases because that was one of his early flashes last year. I already know about the identity, so that also didn't cause me to flash. Your dad's Intersect is older, so the trigger couldn't be that recent."

"Dad, you know computers, like Chuck does. Why were you messing with the brain?"

He looked properly chastised by his daughter. "It was originally supposed to be a teaching tool. The government heard about the concept and wanted to use it to give intelligence details to agents." He pointed towards Sarah, "Like her. After 9-11, they started using the technology to make connections so they could prevent the next big terrorist attack."

"Sarah wasn't part of an anti-terrorism team and didn't get it that way. She was trying to clean up after Bryce, and she got it by accident. Ever since, she has been protecting Chuck, Devon, and me, and even Morgan. You've had this Intersect in your head for years. How dangerous is it?" she demanded.

"See, your brain is like a circuit—"

"Not really, but go on."

"—and when you flash, it releases a surge of electrical energy, but if it's not controlled, it can lead to dementia and insanity, maybe even death,"

That infuriated Ellie. "This life-threatening Intersect thing is in my brother's and your daughter-in-law's heads."

"She's not my daughter-in-law, yet. She could just be manipulating him. They haven't even set a date." Chuck squeezed Sarah's hand three times. He knew the insinuation that what they had was fake would not sit well with her, so she needed to be distracted so she wouldn't get ready to pounce.

Ellie came to Sarah's defense. "Trust me, Dad. I don't know about this spy stuff, but what they have is _not_ fake. They haven't set a date because Sarah made a promise to wait so Devon and I can get married first. Devon and I haven't booked anything for a specific date, so they are on hold. For weeks after Chuck and Sarah got engaged, Sarah kept calling Chuck 'her husband.' I had to tell her to wait until the ceremony." Ellie looked to the other woman. "Sarah, when are you getting married?"

With no hesitation, Sarah answered, "When you and Devon get back from your honeymoon." Ellie smirked at her dad, and Sarah continued with her plan. She knew it was just shy of an elopement, but it was an _actual plan_. "You, Devon, Morgan, and Casey can come with us to the Justice of the Peace the next day."

"That's kind of what I thought. I knew you'd want it to be small and wouldn't want to wait. I didn't know about Casey, but he makes sense now, though. For a while, I figured Morgan would try to get Carina there. He wanted to bring her to Devon's and my wedding." A thought hit Ellie. "Wait. Is Carina also CIA?"

Sarah said, "No, but close. I used to work with her on a special cross-agency team. She knows I'm a spy and knows Chuck is an analyst and off limits because he's mine." Chuck rubbed her back and kissed her temple. "Carina did actually have… something… with Morgan. When I discovered they were really still involved through phone calls, I was as shocked as anyone. She treats men as disposable objects, not people she could have a long-term, long-distance relationship with. She knows _nothing_ about the Intersect, which means about this topic, you already know more than she does. The only people who know that Chuck and I are human Intersects are in this room, plus Casey and General Beckman. Our old CIA supervisor knew but he was killed by those people Jill and Bryce worked for. Our new CIA supervisor only knows that we're on a highly classified assignment, working with the NSA. General Beckman is the one who called in that airstrike last month."

"You people don't mess around."

"The building was a front. Since that night, based on that intel that we acquired, three dozen arrests have been made. They blew up two research facilities, killed half a dozen agents including our boss, the CIA Director of Special Operations. They had dozens of traitors embedded in various government agencies. They don't mess around, so weren't not."

"Wow. Ok. So what happens to my dad? And how long are you planning on doing this?"

"Your dad is family," Sarah affirmed. "The most important thing to me is Chuck. Next is our families. That includes the two people who share our apartment, his sometimes weird best friend, our teammate who speaks in grunts, my dad, and his dad.

"The other night," Sarah continued, "Chuck and I were ordered to use my dad. The situation went south, which is why I came to you. I was keeping it in the family. The truth is, I trust everyone in this room more than that NSA general. We're going to use our Intersects to help this country, but I won't let anything happen to Chuck. Casey won't like keeping secrets from his superior officer, but he knows that family is the number one priority. He's as loyal as you can find in the Marines. To him, it's 'Unit, Corps, God, Country.' Our team and our family make up his Unit."

Ellie seemed satisfied with that answer, but she was still very concerned because of the side-effects Dad mentioned earlier. "As a doctor, I don't see how these flash things can be safe. Dad, you mentioned death, but you've had this thing in your head for a long time. What needs to be done to make it safe, for both Chuck _and Sarah_?"

He looked like he had been put in his place. Chuck knew from experience that his sister was good at that. She did it growing up, and now she did it professionally with "doctor's orders." Their dad said, "I've been working on a fix." He held out his watch. "And this is the closest that I've gotten to one. I call it the Governor. See, it, um, it _governs_ my neural network and helps control the power of the Intersect, almost like a, uh." He pointed a thumb to the heart doctor in the room. "Like a pacemaker does for the heart."

"Dad, give Chuck your watch. Chuck's had this for over a year, and he's been using it, not hiding away from his family in some trailer."

"No Sis. That's ok. Dad's Intersect is older. It might be glitchy. I'm sure Dad will make Governors for both Sarah and me. Right, Dad?"

His dad gave a small nod of agreement, but looked warily at Sarah.

Chuck emphasized, "_Both_ of us. I'm not wearing the first one. I'm giving it to Sarah. She's the one that gets splitting headaches whenever she flashes, and she has to be safe to keep me safe."

Ellie parroted. "_Both_ of them, Dad."

"Yes, of course."

There was a knock on one of the glass doors to the home theater room. Chuck shook his head in disappointment as he went to get it. The store would be open in a few minutes, and they weren't ready to deal with random people. Morgan was supposed to keep them away.

"Morgan, I told you that you're in charge. Whatever it is, I need you to deal with it."

"I know. I just thought that with one long-lost parent here, you might want to see the other one." Morgan stepped back and extended his arm to the side in a flourish. "I present: Mrs B!"

The entire morning had been filled with surprise information, but nothing had prepared Chuck for this new shock. Standing just outside the home theater room was his mom.

* * *

A/N: One parent went on the run from the law, but now we have two again.

Song:  
"Party In The CIA" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Christmas Song:  
"The Christmas Can-Can" by Straight No Chaser


	14. Mr and Mrs Bartowski

_Published August 3, 2020_

A/N: Is it time for a warm reception or a Frost-y one?

* * *

_**December 24, 2008  
Still before the Buy More opened**_

"Mom!" After recovering from this shock, Chuck wrapped his mom a hug.

"Chuck? You've grown. The last time I saw you, you were a lot shorter. I thought I'd be meeting your father."

Morgan said with excitement, "He's inside. All of the B's are here for the big day! I'm going over tonight for the _Twilight Zone_ marathon. It'll be great!"

Chuck tried to keep him contained. "Morgan." He wondered if they'd half to avoid an episode that was too "on the nose" for his own "Twilight Zone" experience.

"Right, Boss. You take care of this here, and I've got everything out there. We have ten minutes to get everything in shape." The little man in holiday attire hurried off.

Chuck hoped everything really was ok out there. Santa's village was mostly, but not completely done. The snow maker wasn't put away, so a customer could trip over the cord, and none of the elves were around to move it. Chuck shot a look at the Wall. Lester and Jeff were fighting over what Christmas movie to put on: _Bad Santa _or _Gremlins_. They shouldn't play either. _Bad Santa _was rated R and while _Gremlins_ was PG, it was one of the reasons PG-13 was created. By company policy, they couldn't play those in the store. Chuck pushed away thoughts of the Buy More on the "biggest shopping day of the year" and escorted his mom into the room that held his Intersect-ed dad, his lovely and lethal fiancée, his sister who had been doing Mom's job for years, and her awesome husband-to-be.

Inside the room, Ellie gasped in shock, and Dad shot up.

"Mary!"

"Stephen!"

The two of them rushed together, joining in a way that made any parents' kids uncomfortable. After a few seconds longer than offspring should generally be subjected to, Ellie spoke up, "Mom?"

Mrs Bartowski released her husband and strongly hugged her daughter. "Oh, my. You have become such a beautiful woman."

They all stayed quiet for a few moments. Everyone there knew not to mess with a full-force Ellie!hug. Eventually, they separated, tears in Ellie's eyes. The older woman said to her husband, "Stephen, why did you signal me?"

"I didn't."

"I did," Sarah said.

Chuck's mom looked at the person she had never met and noticed Sarah's bracelet, which used to be hers. She pulled a gun from her coat and pointed it at Sarah's head. "Who are you, and what are you doing wearing _that_?"

Both of her children exclaimed, "Mom!"

That distracted her for an instant, and Sarah used that moment to pull her own gun from her back waistband.

While raising his hands, Chuck said. "Please don't shoot each other." That would be truly awful. He didn't think Devon and Ellie would appreciate having to do another bullet removal from a parent.

Ellie said, "Mom, the last thing you want to do is point a gun at my best friend. She shot her own father two nights ago."

Mom thought for a second, then decided to put her gun back inside her coat. Sarah put her own away afterwards. The new arrival asked, "What's going on?"

Ellie let out an abrupt laugh, "That's what I'm always saying."

Sarah said, "I'm Sarah Walker. Your daughter is my best friend, and after I'm her maid-of-honor, she will be my matron-of-honor. I'm your future daughter-in-law."

Chuck's dad roughly added, "And she's a spy."

The older woman's expression turned serious, and all joy left her face. Chuck recognized the demeanor from Sarah. His mom looked ready to take on any problem, not that that was necessary with Sarah in the room. _His_ spy would eliminate any such problem.

Unfazed, Sarah introduced the other person who was still back from the group. "That is Ellie's future husband, Devon Woodcomb. He's a heart surgeon. Ellie's a neurologist. As your husband said, I'm a spy, like you are—"

"What!?" cries came out from both Bartowski kids.

Sarah looked to Chuck. He didn't know how Sarah knew his mom's a spy when he didn't, but he caught the eye motion, which meant she needed help. Chuck suggested that Devon, Ellie, and the parents take a seat. Ellie was at the end this time, with the married couple holding hands next to her on the couch. Devon had moved to the adjacent chair. Sarah wasn't about to give up her standing position of authority, and Chuck wasn't about to leave her alone. Her hand remained tightly holding Chuck's still nervous and sweaty palm.

With everyone settled, Chuck's mom said, "I was undercover," like that explained everything. She stared at Sarah's wrist again. "Sarah, why did you pull me out?"

Sarah calmly said, "I didn't know it was you." The sitting spy frowned at that information and because of what she was looking at. Sarah followed the glare to her wrist. "And no, you aren't getting this back. You left it with Chuck and Ellie, and Chuck gave it to me last Christmas when he proposed."

Ellie gently put her two hands on top of her mom's. "It was really adorable. You had to be there. Trust me. It's hers forever now. Mom, I didn't know my brother's and my best friend's secret until a few minutes ago. I don't understand this spy stuff. How could you be 'undercover' for over seventeen years?"

The woman in a black leather coat didn't answer her daughter. Instead she started with a prudent question. "Is this room monitored?"

Chuck said, "Not live. There was an 'incident' a few months ago between one of the green shirts and someone who works in the plaza. Now, I check the recording every night to make sure the furniture doesn't need to be reupholstered. I'll clear the recording of everything said here today."

With privacy confirmed, Mary asked for confirmation. "Chuck's also a spy?'

Ellie, of all people, took that question. "I was told _specifically_ he's not. He's something called an analyst. I don't understand the difference between an analyst and a spy. I only know Chuck does computers, and Sarah uses guns. It's all because of that 'Intersect' thing that dad has, too."

Chuck's mom sharply turned her head to her husband, "Stephen, I thought that research project was shut down. What's happened?"

He sheepishly looked away, but Ellie didn't stay silent. "Mom, you know what the Intersect is? As a neurologist, I don't understand how something like that is possible. I've seen Dad, Chuck, and Sarah all have visible reactions from it. They're different for each of them, but they seem like seizures. They call them 'flashes.'"

His mom withdrew her hand from her husband. "Honey, what did you do? You know how badly it went the first time."

Chuck wasn't sure if he heard that right. His dad was supposed to have first downloaded the Intersect after he left them, which was years after she left. How would she know about a 'first time?' Sarah also picked up on it and asked, "Who else has an Intersect?"

Chuck's dad finally shared some information, even if it wasn't an answer. "The first human trial was before Chuck was born. The Intersect has changed a lot since then. After 9-11, there was an increased push to get the technology to work. I wasn't involved in the project by then, but I've kept tabs on it when I can. That's how I found out that Chuck's roommate, Bryce Larkin, was CIA, and about Chuck being in the class that George Flemming taught. George worked on the image encoding algorithm that the Intersect uses."

Ellie challenged her father. "You _knew_ what Bryce did to get Chuck kicked out of Stanford?"

"Chuck was going to be forced into the CIA. Larkin's plan was to keep him off the CIA recruitment path."

His wife said, "That's something you should have told me about."

"I thought the plan was only to invalidate a test score after Chuck had done so well on it, not get him expelled. I didn't tell Larkin to do what happened. By the time I knew how far he had taken it, it was too late."

Ellie continued her disapproving rant. "Bryce should have been stopped _back then_. He was out of control and even slept with Chuck's girlfriend. Until Sarah came along, Chuck was not doing well. With a degree from Stanford, he could do so much better than this place. Sure, he's the assistant manager, but that's because Sarah gave him his confidence back. He could be so much more if he got his degree."

Sarah quietly said, "I love Chuck the way he is now, but he has a degree." That surprised Chuck. She explained to everyone, "We found proof about Flemming working with Bryce last year."

"Actual _proof_?" Ellie questioned.

"Yes, Ellie, definitive proof," Sarah answered. "A video recording of when Chuck was supposed to be 'recruited.' I like to think that I would have somehow met him and fallen in love five years earlier. Chuck doesn't need a degree for the government nor retail jobs he has now, but it might be useful in the future, so our late boss pushed it through when he had Chuck's record cleared. I probably should have told you, Chuck. Compared to a degree at _the best university in the country_," she winked, "a Stanford degree and no degree aren't very different from each other. Some places care about pieces of paper, though, so someday it might be useful."

Devon, who had remained silent until this point, said, "Congratulations, Chuckster. Awesome."

"Sarah, did you _really_ go to Harvard or is that part of your 'cover,' like the Orange Orange?" Ellie asked.

"I actually graduated from there. I missed the ceremony because I was performing a halo jump over some county that no one here is allowed to know, though it's probably in Chuck's Intersect."

Chuck thought maybe he should be stunned that he actually had a degree. However, compared to his sister finding out about the Intersect, he finding out that he and Sarah worked for the CIA, confirming his dad had an Intersect, and finding out his mom is a spy in the CIA, a diploma was a trivial thing.

"Since Chuck was framed to keep him out of the CIA, how did he get the Intersect?" Chuck's mom asked.

Sarah explained, "The night of Chuck's birthday last year, Bryce broke into an NSA lab, killed a guard, and destroyed the Alpha Intersect. They were the acts of a traitor. We don't understand why, but before he died, he emailed the Intersect to Chuck. There are two theories. We may never know which one is true.

"One theory is because Bryce knew Chuck's ability to retain Intersect information, he wanted Chuck to save it. The group Bryce was working with would torture Chuck to make him cooperate. The second theory is completely vindictive, based on some college grudge. By sending the email to Chuck, he was making him a patsy, someone with a Federal bullseye on his back. People like me would be sent to kill him. Fortunately, before things got that far, I simply tried to take Chuck's computer, which I thought contained the Intersect email. While doing that, I realized what a great guy he is."

That second theory was the one Chuck believed. Chuck knew two assassins, now his teammates, had been dispatched. He was fortunate that Morgan couldn't hang a shelf, and that Sarah didn't trust him back then. If Sarah hadn't accidentally downloaded the Intersect herself, who knows what would have happened. That first date would not have ended with them at the beach together.

With a disapproving stare, Chuck's mom asked her husband, "Why didn't you contact me when our son downloaded the Intersect?"

"I knew Sarah was keeping a close eye on him as a cover girlfriend."

Sarah said, "It was _never_ a cover for me. Chuck and I were engaged in three months, before Ellie and Devon."

Mom expressed her displeasure to her husband again. "It wasn't life threatening, but both of our children getting engaged was _another_ good reason for you to find some way to contact me."

"I thought it was too dangerous. And I wasn't even sure how to reach you. Sarah's the one who contacted you. I don't know how. I destroyed the records of the protocols to contact you."

Sarah explained, "A few nights ago, I saw you flash but didn't know how that could be possible. I assumed you once worked with the government, and I thought your old handler should be quested. I know how important the human Intersects are to the government. The existence of another human Intersect that has been in the wind is more important than any ongoing mission. I wanted to find out more information before reporting it."

"How did you even know how to contact her? I purged all traces."

"I used my personal secret weapon: Chuck. How did you do it, Chuck?"

"I figured any record had to be from before he left. I looked for Yori as a code name because of the Tron poster. Mom was always teasing you about her."

"You didn't purge that alias?" Mom said.

"It wasn't an official CIA one. It was our secret way of sending messages. I didn't think anyone would look for it in the CIA archives, but then I didn't realize who would be looking."

The spy who had been called in from the cold addressed the one standing side-by-side with her son. "Thank you for contacting me, Sarah. I needed to know that my son and husband have an Intersect in their heads."

"You're welcome, Agent Bartowski."

"Call me Mary."

"You're welcome, Mary." Chuck breathed a sign of relief that they probably weren't going to shoot each other.

Sarah had a question for the other spy in the family. "What's your mission? It's not in CIA records, though I suppose that's your husband's doing. Chuck's and my old boss was the CIA Director of Special Operations and had full access. It wasn't in his private files. With him dead and no record, that means you're completely off-grid."

The older spy explained the mission and that mysterious first human trial. "The earliest download, before Chuck was born, went into Stephen's best friend, Hartley Winterbottom. It was supposed to help him with an alias so he could go undercover, but something went very wrong, and it changed him. He no longer remembered being Harley and started taking over the criminal organization instead of infiltrating it. When we realized the Intersect-triggered personality change was not wearing off, I went to retrieve my husband's best friend. Rescuing Hartley was never an official CIA mission, and it wasn't supposed to take anywhere near this long. Hartley's very well insulated."

Even though she was one of the people affected the most, Ellie tried to justify her mom's spy choice. "I don't agree with what you did, Mom, but it kind of makes sense. Sarah, it's like if you future best-friend-in-law all of sudden became evil instead of just annoying, wouldn't you do anything to save him? Just know, if it involves shooting him, I'll definitely treat him, but I fully endorse that plan."

Sarah wasn't buying it. "Last month, Morgan was kidnapped by Jill. I took Chuck with me because the safest place for him is right with me. If I'm there to protect him, nothing bad will happen to _my Chuck_. I had Morgan and Chuck home safely that same night."

Mary seemed impressed with what Sarah was willing to do and able to accomplish, so she stopped her hostile looks towards Sarah's engagement bracelet. On one side, Ellie was sitting upright, looking like a strong ally. She was probably happy to finally be getting an explanation. On the other, Dad was completely uncomfortable. Earlier, his daughter had been putting him in his place. Now, it was his long-lost wife.

Sarah had another question. "Stephen, a few months ago, Chuck and I mysteriously received sunglasses that contained an Intersect refresh. The NSA claims to know nothing. No one should even know that we have the Intersect, but we also thought there was no other human Intersect. I have a feeling you know something. Do you know anything about the glasses?"

Ellie jumped in, "You two have downloaded the Intersect a _second_ time?"

Chuck said, "Yes. We didn't flash much for months. The CIA had me reviewing weekly packets to see if I flashed on something, but the Director was killed. The packets I reviewed were for compartmentalized CIA missions, and the NSA General didn't know about them. With the Director out of the way, she thought we had done nothing for months, so she was going to disband the team."

Sarah continued, "Before it got to that point, Chuck received two pairs of Intersect glasses, and we refreshed the information in our heads. No one knows where they came from or how they included new government secrets. This initially set off huge security warning bells, but so far, there's been no cause for concern." She looked directly at the human Intersect sitting on the couch. "I think the other human Intersect in this room knows something."

"I sent the glasses, but please don't shoot me."

"Of course I'm not going to hurt Chuck's father. You're family. _My_ dad is the problem. You obviously don't like us having Intersects, so why did you send the refresh glasses?"

"I didn't know about the flashes on mission packets, either. I thought Chuck was in danger because he was living with an assassin and his usefulness might be at an end."

His wife mumbled, "Protecting our son is _another_ reason good enough to contact me."

No, it had not thawed between them. A child didn't want to see his parents lip-locked, but he also didn't want to see them fight. Maybe 'fight' was too strong a word. He knew what it was like to have a fight with a spy, because that happened the first night after he met Sarah. He'd felt the full impact of a computer-stealing ninja. Since then, they've had 'tiffs,' but nothing lasting. Even when she turned away from him in bed because he had been playing computer games too long, her feet would seek out his for warmth.

His dad said, "I didn't know the Yori protocol would still work. That was from nine years before you left."

Chuck didn't like the implication his dad had made. "Sarah would never do anything to hurt me, and anyone else would have to go through her. She would win." Sarah wrapped her two hands around Chuck's arm as a sign of ownership.

"I'm starting to believe that. Back then, I thought the whole thing was a scam." He took his wife's hand in his and held it up. "I do know that spies fall in love, though."

"If you didn't trust me, why the two pairs of Intersect glasses?" Sarah asked.

"One was so Chuck would remain useful and safe. The other was because I thought they might do something to him if he got an update from some mysterious source while the other human Intersect who worked for them didn't. It would look like some outside agency was trying to influence the person who wasn't an agent."

"Chuck and I are a team. He was worried about me feeling left out. He put them on my face so I wouldn't be left behind. He wanted us to remain on the team together. I'm remaining with him regardless of whether either of us has the Intersect. How did you know how to make Intersect glasses? What kind of research did you do on the Intersect project?"

The undercover spy proudly said of her husband, "Stephen's Orion."

Sarah and Chuck looked at each other in surprise. "Orion" was the code name of the lead scientist who designed the Intersect. He had been missing for many years, and the CIA and NSA had been trying to find him since Bryce destroyed the Alpha Intersect. He couldn't be in the room with them. Then again, they thought there couldn't be a third human Intersect.

Chuck's dad asked for a paper and pen, so Chuck got a warranty form from a bin on the wall. He pulled a pen from his pocket protector. Even though he was the assistant manager, he still wore his Nerd Herd button-downs. The only change was the green and gold patterned tie he wore. Sarah still adjusted it every morning, because she liked putting her hands on him.

The scientist drew a symbol on the blank back of the form. It had a slanted square in the middle, with two long lines extending in each direction. Sarah's hand went to her head, and she leaned hard into Chuck. Chuck went cross-eyed and blinked rapidly.

The spy who was not a human Intersect said, "So that's what a flash looks like. It's different for each of them."

"Dad, what was that? I flashed on some semantics and a circuit diagram. How do you know that symbol is in the Intersect?"

"I put it into the base Intersect program a long time ago."

Chuck followed with questions, "Since you're 'Orion,' is that that's why you could create Intersect glasses? Is that why you have an Intersect in your own head?"

"Downloading the Intersect myself was dangerous, as we saw when the original human test with Hartley failed so spectacularly. I didn't want to be around you kids if something went wrong again. Ellie was old enough to take legal responsibility for Chuck, and we were lucky the first time Chuck downloaded the Intersect."

"First time I what?" Chuck looked between his parents.

His mom said, "Don't look at me. I don't know what he's talking about. I _just_ found out about your download a year ago and the update. I didn't know about the Intersects in any of your heads. Hartley happened a long time ago, when I was pregnant with Chuck."

His dad leaned forward on the couch and took his mom's hands in his to reassure her. To Chuck, he said, "You probably don't remember that first time. It was about a week after your mother left. You wandered into my lab in our home in Encino. You were ten years old and didn't know what you were doing, but you downloaded an Intersect. It didn't have government secrets. It was a small test program for the download process itself. You handled it with no problems because you're special, Charles. When you were older, I was about to do a major test, which is why I didn't want to be around you and Eleanor."

Sarah leaned into her "special" fiancé. Everyone else stared in amazement at him, the person who downloaded the Intersect when he was just ten.

Chuck wondered what that meant for him. A few minutes before, they were concerned that Sarah and Chuck didn't have Governors like his dad. His dad had a prototype Intersect for over a decade, but wore a Governor, while Sarah and Chuck did for only about 15 months. They should have one, too. It made sense that it took a while to be harmful or that it was different because Intersect technology was more advanced. Now, it appeared that Chuck had downloaded an even older Intersect.

* * *

**_Just after the Buy More opened_**

Morgan thought his first role as management was going well. The store was already full of customers. Practically everyone who was supposed to be working was working, not hiding in the break room.

Only Anna was lounging with her feet up on the Nerd Herd desk. Skip had everyone else in the Herd helping the sales team answer technical questions. Anna had been ready to help, until she realized Chuck had left Morgan in charge. She refused to work for him. Christmas Eve was not a big support day, so she could stay out of the way where she was.

Speaking of Skip, he was talking to an older blonde woman holding a very small girl. Skip motioned Morgan over. When Morgan joined them, the woman repeated what she had asked Skip. "Hi. I was hoping you could help me. I was wondering if my son, Chuck, is working today?"

That made no sense. A few minutes ago, Morgan had recognized Mrs B waiting outside at the front door, so he took her to the home theater room. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I've known Chuck's mom for years, and I saw her a few minutes ago. You must be thinking of a different Chuck who I don't know." He excused himself. He might be dressed as one of Santa's helpers, but that didn't mean he could use elven magic to make things come true for every customer.

* * *

_**Back in the home theater room**_

Chuck was startled by another knock on the door to the home theater room. They had finally told Ellie and Devon the truth. They should also tell Morgan. He was already talking about Sarah's "superpowers," and he knew Chuck's mom and dad were back. Maybe if they told him a little, he'd stop bugging them when they were having important spy discussions.

Chuck opened the door, surprised it wasn't Morgan, but rather the Nerd Herd Supervisor. "Skip, what's the problem?"

He said, "Sorry to disturb you, Boss. Some lady with a little girl asked me if you were working today. She said she was your mom. Morgan said that you were already back here with your mom and that she must be thinking of another Chuck. That woman looked very concerned, so I thought I ought to let you know."

Chuck said to the curly-haired man, "It's fine. Thanks for telling me." Skip nodded and left.

Chuck had one mom. That woman had been missing for seventeen years, but she was concealed behind the curtains of the home theater room, a few feet away. If you stretched the definition of 'mom' to the person who had practically been his mom for over half his life, his big sister was sitting next to his actual mom.

The store had opened a couple minutes before, so they really should find some other place else to talk because the home theater room was public. Chuck looked out across the sales floor and saw a flash of blonde. He knew that blonde hair because it was so like the color he slept next to every night. On that woman's hip was a little angel. Chuck immediately pivoted to go back into the home theater room.

Ellie asked, "What did Morgan want this time?"

Chuck looked directly at Sarah as he answered. "It wasn't Morgan. It was Skip. He said _my mother_ was asking about me. I thought that was impossible because I hadn't seen her since I was 10, and she's been in this very room with me since before the store opened. Then I looked out across the store and realized the woman that he was talking about is like her daughter, talking like we're already married.

Sarah's eyes became saucers, and she ran out the door.

* * *

A/N: It's the same day as "Chuck vs Santa Claus" in the show. Everyone is at the Buy More. Almost. Some _still_ aren't.

Song:  
_Terminator_ Theme (thank Linda Hamilton)

Christmas song:  
"Let It Go" from _Frozen_. (Snow Queen, Frost Queen, same thing)_  
_


	15. Three Parents

_Published August 4, 2020_

A/N: In the show, as far as the government was concerned, the Intersect was the biggest secret in the world. It wasn't, though. By "Chuck vs the Subway," a lot of people knew about the Intersect.

* * *

_**Still December 24, 2008  
**__**After the Buy More opened**_

Sarah took a deep breath before re-entering the closed-up home theater room. First, she followed the contact protocol Chuck found and had "Yori" to come to the Buy More. Then she made the decision to reveal the truth to Chuck's dad, Ellie, and Devon. She didn't think there would be a bigger moment. Even meeting Yori, aka her future mother-in-law, and discovering her future father-in-law was Orion himself were minor to her compared to what was about to happen. Chuck was the only other person still breathing who knew of the existence of these two members of her family.

Time to face the music. Sarah stepped into the room holding her sister, Molly, tightly across her chest.

Her mom followed. "Chuck!" Chuck enveloped her in a hug.

Molly looked at everyone in the room. Sarah had been barely holding it together since a minute ago, the first time she had ever heard Molly say, "Sis!" When Molly launched herself at Chuck with a loud "Chuck," Sarah lost the battle—happy tears coming to her face.

Sarah's mom had refrained in front of everyone out in the store, but she didn't hold back now, giving the full hug of someone who loved you and wasn't sure if there would be many more opportunities.

While Chuck and Sarah were showing her mom and Molly how happy they were to see them, everyone else was quiet, not knowing what to say. Ellie spoke first, "Sarah, who is this?"

Sarah wiped her cheeks, and said, "This is my mom, Emma, and my sister, Molly."

Sarah knew that everyone had to be looking back and forth between the sisters trying to figure out the age gap. "Mission refugee who became an adopted sister" was not a normal consideration.

Chuck was holding Molly making funny faces and making her laugh. Ellie stepped-up, extending her hand. "Emma? I'm sorry. We didn't know that Sarah's mom was around. Then again, we didn't know anything about Sarah's dad until a couple days ago."

Sarah's mom abruptly stopped shaking Ellie's hand and looked seriously at her daughter. "Jack was here? I hope he's gone. What did that idiot do?"

"Don't worry about him. Mom. This is my best friend, Ellie. She's Chuck's sister."

Her mom didn't resume the handshake, instead opting for a hug. "Ellie. I've heard so much about you, I feel like I know you already." After the greeting hug, Ellie held her smile, though her eyes were still as wide as they were when they had been talking about the Intersect a few minutes before.

Sarah looked over to the little ears. She didn't know how much Molly could understand—hopefully not anything spy-related. However, the last Sarah knew, Molly couldn't even talk. Time for help. "Devon, I need a favor."

He came over from where he had been in the back of the group. "Anything, Agent Sarah."

To her mom, Sarah introduced him. "This is Ellie's fiancé, Devon Woodcomb."

Emma shook his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain Awesome."

"Mom," Sarah said under her breath. Chuck should never have shared that name back in May. Going to see the pair was causing all sorts of problems. They wouldn't even be there if not for the visit last year and another in May.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I've heard what an… what a great guy you are, Devon."

Sarah solemnly said, "We need to discuss some adult things, so Devon, could you please take my _sister_ around the store. If anyone asks, she's a family member, but do _not_ go into details. They can assume she's something like a niece. If Morgan asks, say _Sarah will explain later. _And stop calling me 'Agent.'"

Chuck handed Molly off to Devon. "Molly, this is Devon."

"Unk Dev?"

"No, Devon's not an uncle. He's a big brother." Sarah didn't know why Molly would know what an uncle is. Sarah didn't have any aunts or uncles, and they were sisters.

Devon looked completely comfortable with Molly immediately. "You can call me Captain Awesome."

That was too much of a mouthful for someone who had not been speaking long, so she echoed, "Cap'some."

"That's right," Devon said with a smile. "Let's go see all the fun things out where the snow is."

Before Devon and Molly left the room and headed out to the fake snow, Chuck provided one final instruction. "No matter what you do, stay away from Jeff and Lester."

Devon gave a sloppy salute, and Molly waved as they left.

Everyone looked at Sarah for an explanation. Sarah showed her mom to the chair where Devon had been sitting. Sarah loved seeing her, but she was furious. She started in on her. "_What_ are you doing here, Mom?" Just because Chuck could hide their trip to see them didn't mean she could come to them. She needed to stay away so Molly wouldn't be found by Ryker.

The older blonde looked at the people in the room she didn't know.

"Of course, you don't know them. Last week, _I_ didn't know them. Those are Chuck and Ellie's parents, Stephen and Mary."

"Chuck's parents? It's so great to meet you. I've only met Chuck twice before, but I've never seen anyone make my daughter so happy. Even when she was four and—"

"Mom, what are you doing here?"

"You heard Molly can talk now. I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, not knowing if she understood that yet, but she did and tried to say what she wanted. She wanted 'Sis and Chuck.' Part of me was shocked. Part of me agreed. I didn't know what to do, so I asked again in a week, and she said the exact same thing. This morning, when she said it again, I just couldn't do anything but make her Christmas wish come true. I figured we could sneak into the Buy More in the middle of the morning crowd when there are a lot of people here so we would blend in. You've said the Orange Orange is almost always empty, so we could come over for yogurt later when no one's around. Molly and I would _both_ get what we wanted for Christmas."

"Mom, Molly isn't one and a half, yet. She can't 'sneak.' You saw how she was with Chuck. We're lucky he was ready to catch her. You talked to two Buy More employees, so they have seen you and know you are somehow linked to Chuck. Who knows how many people out there saw you with me? Fortunately, with Devon walking around with her, people will assume she's part of his side of the family. Coming over to the Orange Orange? That was a _bad_ idea. The store has continuous surveillance."

Her mom looked over to the people she had just met. The mention of "surveillance" surprised her. She cautiously said, "I thought Chuck could erase those, like he does the traffic cameras when you come to see us."

Sarah addressed the concern. "We're sometimes watched live when we're there. It's creepy, but we know for a fact it happens because it happened a few months ago. To answer what you're thinking… Yes, everyone here knows that Chuck and I work for the CIA. Unlike you, they know _what_ we do for the CIA. We were talking about it right before I heard you came here. Before now, they _did not _know that you and Molly existed."

Sarah turned to address the others. "I have to explain something that is a _bigger_ secret than the Intersect. Before today, only Chuck, General Beckman, our partner, Major Casey, and I knew about human Intersects. Our CIA boss did, but he's dead. It turns out, you two knew. That seven, but one person died, making it six. As for my mom and my sister, the only people that knew about them are Chuck, the two of them, and me. Based on the Director's supplemental spy will which he gave me, we think he suspected Molly was alive but had no idea where she was. We know my mom was not in the Intersect because Chuck would have flashed the first time we went to see them. Casey and Beckman know nothing. That makes only four people, and one of them is not even two. It's a more closely guarded secret. Now, you all know it, too. It _must_ remain a family secret."

Ellie didn't want to leave questions lying about when she was finally getting answers, so she asked, "Why is it such a secret that you have a mother and a sister?"

Sarah carefully explained a little. It was obvious today that people with too little information would act against their best interest and that of their family. "If you haven't figured it out, Molly is my _adopted_ sister. Before I came to Los Angeles, I had a mission go very badly—even worse than what you saw a couple days ago when I shot my father. Overseas, Molly's birth parents were murdered by criminals. I was tasked to retrieve Molly by my CIA handler, who had gone rogue and was trying to steal her inheritance. I rescued Molly and brought her to the woman who I wished had raised me. The CIA has no record of my mom. The Director didn't know about her. He only knew about my dad, because he was the person who put him in prison. My former, rogue handler is still out there."

Everyone quietly processed this new information. Finally, Sarah's mom asked, "What's the Intersect?"

They all looked to Sarah, which she thought was ironic because she wasn't the person in the room who invented it. That was Stephen. She wasn't the person who had it the longest. That was Chuck. She wasn't the person who had three successful downloads. That was also Chuck. She figured it was because she was the person who had decided it was time the rest of the family knew the truth.

"The Intersect is a type of technology above top secret. After you and Molly, it's probably the biggest secret on the planet. Stephen was a government scientist, and Mary's a spy like I am, and they already knew about it. Just a little while ago, we told Ellie and Devon about it because Chuck and I work with it, they live in the same apartment as us, and the secrets were causing problems. Please don't think about it anymore. You have a big enough secret of your own."

Mary voiced her opinion. "This is why I stayed away. I didn't want to jeopardize my children."

Ellie didn't agree, "We wanted you there, Mom, whatever the risk."

Sarah explained to her mom. "Mary has been deep undercover for seventeen years. Stephen has been away for over twelve."

She said, "That's almost as long as your dad and me."

"The difference is I made a dumb mistake when I was eight and ran away to stay with Dad. He was a criminal and was forcibly taken from me and sent to prison. The two of them had better reasons."

"Ellie mentioned Jack was around. He won't be making an appearance, will he? I thought he was still locked away."

"No, mom. I don't know where it is now, but he's gone. I don't know where he went, but it's probably more than a thousand miles away. He's the _last_ person I want around with Molly here. He knows who you are so he might be able to find you. He'll _never_ know about Molly. If he ever comes to see you, let me know, and I'll shoot him again."

Her mom laughed, thinking that was a joke. She stopped when she saw Sarah was serious. "Again? You don't mean literally shoot him, do you?"

Sarah asked, "Chuck, what did I do two nights ago?"

"You shot your dad."

"Ellie, what did I do after that?"

"You brought him to our apartment for treatment. I still don't understand why you didn't just take him to the hospital. Is this because you're in the CIA?"

Sarah took Ellie's hands in hers. "I wish I hadn't done that to you and Devon, It would have been a lot easier if we had today's conversation earlier. I should explain this one."

She started, "My Dad is a conman, out on parole. I don't know why he was eligible for parole, but I presume when my CIA supervisor was killed, he wasn't around to block the next hearing. The CIA normally wouldn't want criminal attachments to any agent, not to mention a human Intersect agent, but they didn't stop it this time. A couple weeks ago, Dad did something bad—"

"Of course," Mom mumbled.

"—and when Chuck and I went out to dinner with him the other night, trouble came after him. I reported the contact, but this is when things went sideways here. We were 'unofficially' ordered to use my dad in a con. We thought things went well, and then they didn't. The target captured my dad, and you saw the result. I found out that the NSA was going to punish my dad for something _they wanted him to do_. If I had taken him to a hospital, he would have been imprisoned for helping me, _again_. When I was in high school, he could have gotten away, but he didn't leave me, which is why he was put in prison so long in the first place. Next time he goes to jail, I don't want it to be because of me."

Ellie said, "Aren't you going to get into trouble?"

Chuck let out a little laugh. "Actually, the general was happy with what Sarah did. She thought it would be easier to keep Sarah's and my involvement out of things since there was no hospital record. Casey didn't approve of the attempted arrest, so he had no problem with how it went down."

Sarah added, "Casey's big on 'Unit, Corps, God, Country.' Chuck and I are in his Unit. Beckman is part of his Corps, which is of lower priority. His loyalty is not an issue. He might make snarky comments, but that's what he does."

Mary said, "I completely understand the need to keep Emma and Molly secret—to keep family secret. This morning, I thought I might need to extract Stephen, Ellie, and/or Chuck. I wasn't imagining Sarah, Devon, Emma, and Molly, too. Even with three people it would have been difficult. Seven is not possible."

"What are you talking about, Mom?" Chuck asked.

"My undercover assignment was to go after Hartley. Hartley's Intersect accident made him into Alexei Volkoff."

"Who's that?"

Sarah answered, "For someone who does what you do, Chuck, you should learn some of this. Alexei Volkoff is a Russian weapons dealer. He's the only person not in Al Qaeda who's in the FBI's most-wanted list top-ten." She looked to Stephen. "_That's_ your best friend?"

He shrugged. "It didn't work right back then."

"I couldn't imagine Morgan ever being like that. He'd probably act like a comic book supervillain and would be easier to subdue." She looked to the other spy. "That's an important assignment. No wonder the CIA doesn't acknowledge it. Why is that information relevant now?"

"Alexei is in love with me."

"What?!" the Bartowski kids exclaimed.

Stephen said, "I _knew_ Hartley always had a thing for you. I thought because we were married before the two of you met that he wouldn't do anything about it."

"I promise, _nothing_ has happened, but Alexei doesn't have Hartley's memories. He doesn't know that I'm your wife." She talked directly to the other spy. "He's always worried about what I'm doing if I go someplace and he doesn't know why. I _know_ he's coming here. It's the type of thing he always does. I could check his location, but I'd rather be someplace secure, first. Is there some place we can go, maybe the local CIA field office or something?"

Sarah said, "Yes, but there's a place that's more secure and a lot closer." This was bad. Ryker wasn't coming, but she didn't want any part of the spy-world around Molly. She had enough of that a year ago. She needed help, so she looked to the man that she could depend on. "Chuck, could you get my sister back here? Devon and Morgan, too. We need to evacuate the building somehow."

Chuck went over to the door. Sarah could see outside the home theater room, Devon and Molly were only a few feet away, sitting in front of one of the TVs. Devon had gotten one of the TVs on the Wall switched over to play _Baby Einstein_ to hold Molly's attention. "Devon, now. Up and at 'em. _Be_ awesome." Devon didn't hesitate and quickly brought his charge to the home theater room. That left one person whose attention had been captivated by the bright colors on the big screen TV. Jeff seemed to be engrossed by the show, not caring about Molly. At least Lester wasn't there.

"Jeff, pineapple."

Jeff looked at Chuck in surprise and got up to find the bearded elf who had been left in charge of the store.

* * *

_**Ou****_t_ in the shopping chaos**_

Morgan figured that despite his new position of authority, he was still part of the sales team, so he went to help a customer. She was a short, attractive young woman with long brown hair who looked a little lost staring at the portable music players. She was really cute and amazingly enough didn't seem repulsed by his presence or his green outfit with yellow tights. Management—even lieutenant management—seemed to work for him.

Asking her questions, he found out that like everyone else in the store, she was looking for a last-minute Christmas gift. She had no idea what to get her mom's new boyfriend. The cute customer knew almost nothing about the 4th generation iPod Nanos that had come out that fall. They were pricier than she had expected. She seemed pleasant—not a rude last-minute holiday shopper—so Morgan let her in on the secret: The prices had been raised throughout the store. She said the normal price was too much anyway, so she asked for other ideas.

Morgan suggested a holiday movie. They went over to that section, and he started making comments about movies he liked and others he didn't. It turned out her tastes were very similar to his, and she thought his jokes about the movies he didn't like were funny. Dare he think it—they were hitting it off.

Unfortunately, they were interrupted by one of the two most repulsive people in Buymoria: Jeff.

"Pineapple."

"Hey, dude, don't say that word, okay? It doesn't have any meaning if you keep joking with it, okay? Can't you see that I'm with a beautiful customer?"

She tilted her head down and smiled. If he didn't know better, he would think that he was successfully flirting without even meaning to. It couldn't be that, though. He didn't have "game." It was too bad Jeff was there to ruin the moment.

"I didn't say it. Chuck did."

"Chuck?"

"Chuck," he confirmed.

That changed everything. Morgan held up his hands to the customer in apology. "Excuse me. I'm so, so sorry." He rushed to the Nerd Herd desk and reached around Anna to retrieve the megaphone from the shelves under the counter. He ignored his ex's rude comment and stood up on the counter. He was the head elf today, which made it his job to make the announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have an emergency. I need everyone to leave the store in an orderly fashion."

Morgan looked to the side of the store to find Jeff, someone who knew how serious that word was. "Jeff, pineapple." He pulled the fire alarm.

People started pushing and screaming. With a "pineapple" invoked, there wasn't anything else for Morgan to do. He looked back to where he had been and saw the cute customer frozen, staring at him with her mouth open. He jumped off the counter and ran against the crowd to where she was standing.

"You're still here," Morgan said in astonishment. "Please, oh please, stay right here. I need to check in with the assistant manager. He's that Chuck person Jeff mentioned. Please don't go anywhere until I get back."

She pointed to the ceiling. "But the fire alarm is going off."

"You and I both know there isn't a fire. There's a _pineapple_ situation, so I need to check what that means. But after that, I'd love to talk to you some more."

Somehow, he had found a person that seemed to get him. He hoped the pineapple situation wouldn't destroy the possibility of something more. Whatever was happening wasn't because of a fix-up with his best friend's girl. It was more than that this time. He couldn't explain it. He left the woman behind with her mouth once again hanging open. Taking a clear path to the back of the store, Morgan scrambled to the home theater room. He knocked at the door, and Chuck yanked him inside.

Morgan started in, "Jeff said that you said 'pineapple.' What's the problem? First, your mom and dad are here. Then some other lady with a little girl comes in and says _she's_ your mom. Now, there is complete chaos as everyone is leaving the store. I saw Big Mike fall over trying to stop the push of people. Why the 'pineapple?'"

Chuck, pointed to Emma holding Molly. "Morgan, meet _Sarah's_ mom and my future mother-in-law, Emma, and Sarah's sister, Molly." That shut Morgan up. "Emma, I told you about Morgan."

Chuck continued, "Morgan, really bad people are coming to the Buy More. Sarah's about to do her superhero thing, so we're getting everyone to safety. Think of it as the evil overlord in charge of the people Jill worked for."

Mr Bartowski mumbled, "That's someone else."

Chuck clarified, "Different organization. Same idea. Really _bad_ people."

Morgan solemnly nodded because of the serious description. One thing had to be done, though. "I completely understand. When Jeff came over, I was really connecting with this amazing young woman, and I asked her to wait. I really don't want to leave her out there by herself with supervillains about to attack. I'll be right back."

Chuck didn't keep the frustration out of his voice. "Morgan!"

A trap door in the floor opened unexpectedly, and Casey came up through it. Morgan didn't know there was a secret way in and out of the Buy More. Apparently, his Buy More co-worker did. Maybe there were two Lieutenant Assistant Managers. Morgan had just started, so he couldn't expect to learn everything on Day One. Knowing all of the ways in and out of the Buy More could be useful, though.

Casey gruffly said, "Walker, why is the Buy More going into lockdown? Who are all these people?"

"Casey, hostiles are inbound. Everyone here is family. We need to get everyone into Castle as soon as possible. I'll explain when we're secure."

"Understood. Let's go, people." Casey led everyone back down the ladder. Devon handed the toddler who had been introduced as _Sarah's sister_ down the hole. The others started filing down one at a time. Morgan had to act fast.

As he started to head out, Chuck called to him, "Morgan, tell her to get as far from here as possible and then hurry back."

Sarah added, "This isn't the time to go slow. Close the trap door when you follow."

Morgan didn't know if that woman whom he had made a miraculous connection with would still be waiting for him, but with Lex Luthor coming, he couldn't leave her to fend for herself. Morgan found her uncomfortably waiting for him by a holiday movie display and decided the safest way for her to go was with him. He took her hand and let her back to the secret passage. When they entered the home theater room, it was empty, save Sarah's ponytail disappearing down the hole. Morgan and the young woman followed into the abyss, shutting the trap door behind them.

* * *

A/N: Who did Morgan bring with him? There is no partial credit. Full name required.

Song:  
"(They Long To Be) Close to You" - not the Carpenters, but Josie and the Pussycats (with Cherie Moor, aka Cheryl Ladd, aka Emma)

Christmas song:  
"What's This?" from _The Nightmare Before Christmas_


	16. Another Parent

_Published August 5, 2020_

A/N: It's never safe in the car…or in the Buy More.

* * *

_**Still December 24, 2008**_

Alex didn't mean to wait to Christmas shop until the last minute, but she had been caught off-guard and didn't want to be left unprepared. She went to the Buy More that morning because she found out that her mom's boyfriend was coming over for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Her mom had been dating Peter for a couple months, and last week she'd asked her daughter what she thought about her mom staying at his place overnight sometime. Before that awkward conversation, she had thought she was safe from that until after she graduated from college with her criminology degree. Then it wouldn't matter because she'd move out, and she'd avoid being around for her mom's walks of shame back into the home. Conversations like that made her want to find an apartment on campus right away. She wondered if a student could get one starting in the Spring semester. For a college student living at home, that conversation was supposed to go the other way around.

She had no idea what to expect tomorrow. She thought she ought to have a safety gift. After the conversation she wished had never happened, it would be awkward enough around the two of them. It would be worse if she was empty-handed for a gift exchange that she didn't even know for sure was happening.

When Alex entered the Buy More, she didn't have any good ideas. The only things she knew about Peter were he sold insurance, he wasn't creepy around a grown-up daughter (ehem, Jake), and he made her mom happy. She started looking for gift ideas at the iPods because everyone likes music. They were way too expensive, especially considering she didn't even know if a gift was needed. A cute salesman named Morgan, dressed for the store as an elf in yellow tights, came to the rescue and changed her entire thinking about the gift.

He suggested a movie, which was more in the right price range. It was great because she could give it to both of them, as a couple, which would be less awkward. If there wasn't a gift giving time with Peter there, she could give it only to her mom. More specifically, Morgan's suggestion was a get holiday classic. As they entered the section, he gave several movies reviews with character voices. He did a hilarious Kermit for _The Muppet Christmas Carol_, then he discouraged that choice as Jacob Marley, who was one of the two grumpy old guys from the Muppets. Ironically, considering his Christmas costume, he also recommended against _Elf_ because all elves should be less than 6 feet tall. With a decent impression of Jimmy Stewart, he suggested _It's a Wonderful Life_.

At the diner where she worked, Alex was used to customers "hitting on her." She'd admit that she flirted back because it would help her get better tips. No one close to her age ate there, so it was never remotely serious, and nothing ever went further than friendly banter. The men in their sixties and seventies were sweet.

With Alex a customer for a change, she found herself hoping it would go further. Morgan was really funny, and she was having to hold herself back because she kept wanting to scratch his beard. He looked ridiculous dressed as a Christmas elf, yet he seemed completely at ease around her, in his own self-deprecating way. They seemed to think exactly the same things about movies. It was almost like he was reading her mind. Unfortunately, Morgan hadn't read the part of her mind that wanted him to ask for her number. She was going to have to offer it to him so maybe they could go on a date, someplace away from a Santa's village and the fake snow.

Morgan and Alex agreed that _Die Hard_ was a Christmas movie, though she doubted her mom would appreciate that choice as a gift to Peter and her. Unfortunately, they were interrupted by an older Buy More employee who was a little dazed, almost like he had something wrong in his head. He relayed some kind of a problem with a single word, "Pineapple." She figured it was some special code word because Morgan took it very seriously. He left her and ordered the fire alarm to be pulled. Until then, she knew he was a few years older than her, but she had no idea that he was in charge of the entire store. She figured calling for an evacuation would be the manager's job.

Alex didn't try to fight her way through the panicked mob because she knew it wasn't a real fire. It was something else, and she had some time, so a part of her hoped to give her digits to the cute guy she had met. Morgan came back to her twice, seemingly caught between something very important going on and the desire to talk to her. She didn't know what the important thing was, but his attention being split back to her was flattering.

The second time he came back, he asked her to go with him, but not the direction the mob of customers and employees were fleeing. The entire situation made no sense. He took her hand, and Alex felt a little spark. She liked it. He insisted they had to hurry and led her to the home theater room in the back of the store. Apparently, it had some special emergency exit, and he thought she should use it, too.

Inside the room, Alex saw a woman disappear through a trapdoor in the floor. Going through some hole in the floor with some man she had just met wasn't something that had been brought up in one of her women's safety-slash-self-defense classes, but it was the same type of thing. She wouldn't be alone, though. She had seen some woman go before them. Alex had excelled in self-defense classes and could handle whatever she encountered. Considering his costume, Morgan might need _her_ to protect _him._ Also, she still hoped for a proper date. Nothing too fancy. Maybe Chinese. That would require her talking with him more, not disappearing into the unruly crowd out front.

She went down the ladder, which ended in a well-lit, extremely long hallway. A bunch of people were way ahead of them, but one tall, curly-haired man in a white button down and a green and yellow tie stood at the bottom of the ladder. He frowned, looking up at Morgan with disapproval, fortunately not directing that look at her. Alex hoped she wasn't going to get into trouble.

Morgan closed the trapdoor, and when he was halfway down the ladder, several red security lasers blocked the way back into the store. When Morgan joined them at the bottom of the ladder, the man said, "Morgan, what are you doing bringing a friend down here?"

"I didn't know what's happening, Chuck. I knew trouble was coming, and Alex," he motioned to her, "was waiting in harm's way because I had asked her to wait. I wanted us to go to the safest possible place. You've always protected me, and SuperSarah went this way, so I brought Alex here." Done with his explanation, he switched gears. "What is this place? I didn't know that the Buy More has emergency earthquake tunnels."

Chuck slowly shook his head with a grimace. "That's not where we are." Then, he put on a smile and greeted her. "Hi, I'm Chuck Bartowski. You're perfectly safe here with us, but you can't tell anyone about anything you see. We'll get you out as soon as it's safe to do so. Until then, hang tight."

This Chuck seemed to be frustrated with Morgan, but at least he wasn't mad at her. "Chuck" was the name of the person that originally said "pineapple." Apparently, they had some sort of bunker under the store.

"Hi, I'm Alex McHugh. I don't mean to cause trouble. Morgan's the one that ordered the fire alarm to be pulled for a non-existent fire, so I thought the safest place would be with him. I was named after my father. He was killed-in-action before I was born: Alex Coburn."

Chuck went cross-eyed and blinked rapidly several times. He shook out his head and said, "Ok. _That's_ not what I expected. Sorry for the less than warm welcome, but you are _absolutely_ where you _should_ be. You made the right choice in coming here. This is probably the safest place for miles for a daughter of a Marine." He pointed down the hall. "We should catch up to the others."

That was odd. Alex never mentioned that her father was a Marine, only that he was KIA. That could be said of someone in the Army or a fireman.

They all quickly went down the hallway. The group of at least half a dozen that she had seen ahead disappeared through a doorway to the side. When Alex, Morgan, and Chuck reached that door, they were stopped by the tall, blonde woman Alex had seen earlier. There really were too many tall, blonde knockouts in LA, and this was another one. She was wearing white jeans and a baby blue zip-up hoodie that had an orange logo on it. Maybe that was another store in the shopping plaza, and the bunker was for several stores.

With a cold, steady stare at Alex, the woman said, "Chuck, who did Morgan bring here? No one is supposed to know about this place." Maybe she was in trouble, after all.

Alex looked past the woman to see there were all of the other people who had evacuated this way. That's a lot of "no ones."

Chuck said, "Sarah, I don't know what Morgan was doing, but he did the _right thing_. This is Alex McHugh. She is named after her _father,_ Alex Coburn."

As he was talking, Chuck had taken hold of Sarah's shoulder, which was a good thing. Something happened to Sarah, and she lost her balance. She raised her hand to Chuck to steady herself. Then, her face was filled with surprise. She looked over to the group behind her and then back. "Chuck…"

Sarah shook out her head and looked at Alex, this time with a more pleasant demeanor. "Alex, it's good to meet you. We normally don't have anyone else down here, so we weren't prepared. This room is the dojo and is big enough for everyone. It's better than a holding cell. Unfortunately, it doesn't have good places to sit. You and Morgan should try to make yourselves comfortable. We'll deal with the situation that is coming, and then you can safely be on your way."

Morgan said, "Sarah, this place is so cool! It's like you have your own Batcave, which makes sense because superheroes need lairs. I bet we're almost under the Orange Orange, aren't we?

Sarah sighed as an answer. "Morgan, _do not touch the weapons racks._ Chuck, I need your help with your parents."

That information meant this unorthodox escape route took Alex the same place as the Buy More Assistant Manager's family. It had to be a safe place. She still didn't know what the emergency was, though, why there was an underground dojo under an electronics store, or why there were "holding cells."

Chuck said, "I'll help. Morgan, do as Sarah said. _Don't touch anything._ Alex, you'll be safe here."

Chuck and Sarah were about to go out into the room to join the others when a large man in a green polo came up. He looked gruff, though his fingertips were each wrapped in band-aids. He wore a yellow Buy More name tag that said "John."

"Not only did we open this place for _him_, but random other people? This place is not a shelter for everyone."

Sarah spoke up quickly. "Casey, calm down. _Everyone_ that came down here should be down here." Alex appreciated the vote of confidence. _She_ still wasn't sure she should be there, but at least Chuck and Sarah thought she should be. Sarah continued, "Alex, this is John Casey. Casey, this is Alex McHugh, she was named after—"

Sarah stopped talking when she saw the immediate surprise on the big man's face. That was three people, Chuck, Sarah, and John, who each had a strong reaction to the mention of her name or her dad's. Maybe they knew her dad, though she didn't see how. Chuck and Sarah were too young, and John didn't even hear her dad's last name.

John made an awkward attempt at a smile. It looked like something that did not come naturally to him. "Welcome to Castle." At least he wasn't against her presence anymore. Alex came this way because she wanted to give Morgan her phone number, but now she wanted to know more.

Sarah said, "Excuse us." She took Chuck over to the others, and John followed. Alex was left alone with Morgan.

Alex asked, "Morgan, what's Castle?" They weren't in Europe, where the castles were.

"I have no idea. Last month, Sarah saved my life when I was kidnapped by a crazy lady. She denies it, but I think she is some kind of superhero with special powers. Castle must be her secret base which goes underground between the frozen yogurt shop, where she works for her secret identity, and the Buy More, where her fiancé, Chuck, is in charge. You met Casey. All of the other people here are family: Chuck's mom and dad, Sarah's mom and sister, Chuck's sister and her fiancé.

That information made Alex _positive_ that she had no business being there. Chuck, Sarah, John and two of the older people (likely Chuck's parents because they looked more like him than her), all left. The brunette who remained came over to greet them.

"Hi, I'm Ellie, Chuck's sister. I know a little more than you, but not that much at all. The five who left are spies and scientific geniuses. The six of us who are still in the room are the civilians. They'll let us know when it's safe to leave. Until then, I've been put in charge by my younger brother. I don't know what being in charge means because I didn't know about this place until I was coming down here a minute before you did. I know you're allowed to hear anything we do, but it's probably better not knowing. We should just stay put and wait for them to do their thing."

_Spies._ That explained a little. Actually, it didn't explain much of anything, other that she wasn't going to find out more. This morning, she was just getting a safety gift, and now she found herself in the middle of some kind of spy operation. Some Christmas. Alex gave her name to the other woman.

"It's good to meet you. I'm sure you feel overwhelmed, but that's no different than we feel. You two stay out of trouble, or I should say Alex, keep Morgan out of trouble. I need to go supervise my future husband before he gets ideas about having little kids when we should really be married first." She went over to the guy who looked like a male model. He was on the floor, having fun playing with the toddler. The older woman was smiling as she stood back and watched them.

Morgan quietly said, "I just met Sarah's family a few minutes ago. I know as much about them as I know about this place."

There were a couple steps around the recessed workout area in the middle. Morgan and Alex found a place to sit and talk. Alex was in over her head, but maybe she could keep her mind off of things that none of them understood and get a date with the cute guy for sometime when he wasn't wearing green and yellow.

* * *

_**Less than a half hour later**_

The evacuation to Castle was just in the nick of time. The Buy More was empty when five armed men entered. Volkoff and four of his henchmen. Fortunately, Chuck cancelled the automatic call to 9-1-1 that had been triggered by the fire alarm. The fire and police wouldn't have known what to do against men armed with machine guns.

The plan was simple—which was another way of saying Chuck had know idea how Sarah and Casey were going to pull it off. They would take care of the running and the shooting. His mom once again had a gun pointed at his fianceé. Chuck didn't like that at all. He wished it was pointed at him. She'd never shoot him …at least he assumed she wouldn't. Sarah? He wasn't so sure. His mom was taking Sarah out the front of the Orange Orange, acting as if she had captured the younger spy. Casey was using the Castle exit through the Buy More breakroom to flank Volkoff's men. He said he would not kill Volkoff, who was really his dad's friend Hartley, but you never knew with Casey.

Chuck's first job was quarterbacking from Castle. He had full control of comms and Buy More security cameras. His second job was to keep an eye on his dad, who he knew was dying to get into the Castle computer network.

It didn't take long for that second job to be a complete failure. Chuck's mom and Casey both had ear pieces, so they heard Chuck when he said, "Dad, what are you doing?!"

"I'm logging in."

"How can you even do that?"

"I have four separate accounts that I've kept active the last fifteen years: two NSA and two CIA."

Chuck mom inserted herself into the conversation as she and Sarah moved across the parking lot. "Stephen, sweetheart, it's not as bad as not bothering to tell me that our children are engaged, not as bad as not telling me that our son was kicked out of school for something he didn't do, and not as bad as not thinking it wasn't important that I know that he downloaded the Intersect not once, not twice, but three times. However, considering I've been cut off from the CIA so long, maybe you should have given me an active login I could use." From the tone, you could definitely tell she was married to him, and he was in the doghouse, maybe with Peaches III, the dog they never got.

Chuck couldn't figure out what his dad was doing, but he knew he had hacked into Castle security. A normal CIA account didn't give him access to Buy More security through the special lines they installed, so he was doing something to enter the local network. He also was remotely controlling the huge, electronic wardrobe. Chuck didn't even know that room was set up for remote access. Maybe he should figure out how to do that from the CIA device Sarah used in her car. It would save time on date-night. Sarah always complained about their small closet and having to go to Castle to dress up for a night out, and you never knew when they'd be in a hurry. With Ellie knowing about this place, she'd probably want the extra closet space, too. Heck, Morgan might want to keep shoes there.

Casey's voice came over comms. "The breakroom is clear. The man in here took a while to clear out because he grabbed a snack from the fridge." To Chuck, that was a disgusting thought because you didn't know how long any of the food had been there. "I don't know where Volkoff's other three are now. They're probably spread out, searching the store. For me to get a clear shot at several of them at once, they'll need to be pulled together into the middle of the store."

That was the goal of having Sarah play the prisoner. It wasn't the Imperial Detention Center plan, exactly. She could probably break the zip ties as easily as Chewie got out of cuffs than didn't fit. That wasn't her job, though. There wasn't a jail cell holding a prisoner. She was going to get the bad guys to come to the Nerd Herd desk so the spies could take out the group instead of having people spread out places like the cage and the car stereo installation garage, where they could take cover. The team needed a name for the plan they were executing.

Chuck's dad let out one of those quiet cheers that computer people did when the pieces from a problem fit together, then he quickly left the room. Part of Chuck thought he should go after him, but Sarah and his mom were at the front entrance of the Buy More, so he needed to remain at the main terminal in case they needed him.

When the two women entered through the sliding doors of the store, Volkoff gave a smile that was a little creepy and said, "There you are Frost, my love. When you left for Los Angeles without an explanation, I was worried. Who do you have here?"

"This is the CIA agent who crippled Fulcrum."

Volkoff clapped his hands together and his smile grew. "Marvelous." He spoke into his watch. "Get out here, you imbeciles. I found her, and she brought a Christmas gift."

The four bad guys went to the Nerd Herd desk where Volkoff, Sarah, and his mom were waiting. Chuck didn't like the idea of revealing Sarah was a CIA agent, but the plan was working so far. All the bad guys were in one place.

Volkoff said to the audience in front of him, "This is wonderful. Theodore will be very happy. He had been trying to create his own Intersect, but he was spooked by the destruction of Fulcrum's major office in the LA area. I wonder how much she's worth to him."

The screens on the Wall all came to life. Pictured on each of them, encoded in letters, was the face of a man wearing sunglasses and a Fedora. It was kind of like _The Matrix_, except blue instead of green. No one could control all of the TV screens on the Wall without the master remote or Castle's override control. Chuck wasn't doing that. He knew there was only one person it could be. His dad must have gone to the wardrobe room to get a disguise and from there, be sending a live video to the Buy More. That wasn't part of the plan.

Volkoff was enraged. "Orion! _You're_ the one who destroyed the building of one of my biggest customers. I'm going to destroy you. What do you have to do with this one?" Volkoff motioned to Sarah.

Orion's voice was distorted so it sounded like it was going through a primitive voice digitizer. "She's going to be my daughter-in-law." At least that statement meant his dad realized the truth, that Chuck and Sarah were a real couple.

"Your what?!" Volkoff angrily asked, as if he could scare out a different description.

From inside the Buy More, Chuck's mom calmly said, "My husband said she's going to be our daughter-in-law."

Chuck knew that declaration had to completely confuse Volkoff. His mom just revealed Frost and Orion were married, a secret she had kept for years while undercover. The Russian weapons dealer with British accent absentmindedly turned his head to the side in shock, towards where two of his henchmen were standing, only to see them collapse to the ground. Casey had taken those two down in a second, before anyone knew what was happening. He was using the check-out counter for cover, using silenced shots from a rifle, so you wouldn't see him unless you knew where to look.

Volkoff took cover behind the Nerd Herd counter. The two other henchmen didn't know where the shots were coming from, so they tried to take cover with him. They didn't get that far before Casey shot them both, as well.

That left Volkoff without allies, except for the woman he knew as Frost, but she wasn't helping him this time. With a handgun out, he stood ready to try to intimidate his attacker. He never got that far. As he stood from his hiding place behind the counter, free of the zip-ties around her wrists, Sarah clocked him with the megaphone that had been sitting right there. He would survive, but was out cold.

"Yeah! Good guys win!" Chuck exclaimed. His team was the best.

"Son, Sarah doesn't have an earpiece. Do you want to talk to her?"

"No that's alright. I'll congratulate her later."

Casey did have an earpiece so he interrupted, "Please, don't give me the details of how you will be expressing lady feelings."

"I'm sorry, Casey," Chuck said. "You did great, too. Taking out all those people without anyone getting her. Sarah and I are—"

"Please stop so my ears don't bleed."

His mom switched her mic to vox and changed the subject. "Stephen, _what_ were you doing? That was not part of the plan."

The scrambled head-shots of Orion were still on the TVs. Since he had turned off the voice digitizer, it was a little odd when regular voice came from the Orion images, saying, "I know it wasn't in the original plan, but I thought it would work as a distraction, and it did. It went well."

"We'll bring Hartley down in a minute. I assume Casey and Sarah have to call this in. Shut that thing off, and stop playing spy."

The screens shut off, but Chuck could still see the spies though the Buy More security feed. "Sarah, do you have a problem with Chuck not doing what you tell him to do? When I met Stephen, it was easier because he was in the lab all the time. Chuck's a field analyst, not a government scientist, so he's probably regularly pulling stunts like that. I have trouble imagining what it would be like if the man I loved was doing stuff like that all the time."

Sarah smiled and said, "It can be frustrating, but Chuck and I have figured out how to trust each other and work together. Let's go. Casey can drag this Intersect-experiment-gone-wrong downstairs. I need to check on my family. My mom has never been this close to a mission. The last time my sister was, it was over a year ago. She was in a papoose as I was shooting our way out."

"At least I know you can take care of my future grandchildren."

* * *

A/N:  
Honestly, do you really think Team Intersect would let Ellie up to the Buy More to use a frying pan? For that, see "Ellie vs the Ninja". She doesn't wait for permission. With no Bryce-handoff on Black Friday, 2007, this is the first store 'pineapple.' Jeff didn't get a megaphone to the head this time, so someone had to be knocked out with one. Unlike after Thanksgiving 2010, Volkoff didn't bring a bomb to the Buy More. He hadn't recently had several losses to the team from Southern California. He was only stalking his "girlfriend."

That's it for "The Intersect Couple vs Family Matters," and that's almost it for this story. The next chapter is the last. It takes place a week later in the story timeline.

Song:  
_"_The Living Daylights" by A-Ha (blame Timothy Dalton)

Christmas song:  
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" - not the original from _Neptune's Daughter_, but the 2014 version from the Idina Menzel & Michael Bublé video. That version was released a few years after this chapter takes place, but the video with little kids is fun. It fits, too. While it's not cold outside in Burbank, cold is relative, and it's warmer in Castle.


	17. The Intersect Couple vs A New Year

_Published August 10, 2020_

A/N: Before the year ends, it's time to wrap up some loose threads.

* * *

_**Evening of December 31, 2008**_

Chuck's sound-system setup was working well for the New Year's party in the apartment courtyard. ("Get the Party Started" by Pink played.) The playlist was better than what could have happened. The other day at work, Jeff and Lester heard him on the phone with Ellie talking about picking up party supplies. They jumped on the opportunity to debut their cover band—Lesrey or Jeffster or something. Having the two of them around a supply of alcohol and his home was a terrifying thought, so he lied and told them a New Year's party would be dry. Jeff set he'd BYOB it, but Chuck said there were zoning issues. That wasn't true either, but fortunately they bought it.

The courtyard was filled with about twenty people, all in good spirits. Chuck wasn't "friends" with any of them, but he recognized a few from prior parties. The neighbors never came. He wondered if they were going to start losing neighbors or if they simply went somewhere else to avoid the noise.

Sarah wasn't up for mingling; she said it seemed too much like work. Personally, he didn't see what was so in common between socializing at an embassy party with a bunch of diplomats and bringing in the New Year with a bunch of twenty-somethings. One had the public face of arms dealers and terrorists, and the other had people who were harmless. Sarah did say earlier that she was disappointed that so many people would be right outside her bedroom so she and Chuck wouldn't have privacy to celebrate together until everyone left. He did agree that privacy would be good.

The two of them grabbed a couple courtyard chairs and set them in the corner, in front of the Morgan Door. He waited for her to sit first. Instead, she stood looking at them and frowned.

"What is it?"

Sarah didn't answer right away. Then she motioned for him to take the one on the left. That's what he figured anyway, because that was his side of the bed. When he sat, he patted the seat of the other chair. She didn't claim that one, though. She pushed him back, sat sideways across his lap, and put her arms loosely around his neck.

"That's better," she said, giving him a short, but soft kiss on the lips. On one hand, it was a little silly, with an open chair right next to them. On the other hand, Sarah had long ago admitted to him that when they watched a movie with Devon and Ellie, Sarah preferred sharing a single chair with Chuck over sitting next to him on the sofa. She didn't care that they were two tall people and could use more room. She liked being smashed into him. It made her feel like she was protecting by keeping him in one place. The fact that she was all over him was a happy coincidence.

The music changed to "Until The End of Time" by Foreigner. Chuck wondered how long it was until midnight. The ball had long ago dropped in New York, but they should have some time. He looked at his watch and saw Sarah had done it again. When she was distracting him with a kiss, she had swapped their watches. Over the past week, his dad only had time to make one Governor. Chuck and Ellie agreed that Sarah should have the first one. Their dad even came around to their thinking, so he made it part of Sarah's watch. Sarah didn't agree with that decision. She argued Chuck had one more download than her, and it was _her_ job to protect _him_. The votes of the neurologist and the designer of the Governor carried more weight. Most of the time, she stopped arguing, but then Chuck would discover she had reversed their watches when he was not looking. A kiss normally worked as a distraction. He didn't mind it working and didn't mind her trying again and again when he put it back.

Chuck tsked and returned it to her wrist. Since she had his, he put that back on his wrist, too. He discovered early that she didn't mind him catching her very much, because she'd just try again. However, she genuinely really didn't like him going with no watch, which would leave him without an SOS button and a tracker. "This will be easier when Dad finishes the second one."

"I suppose I'll have to find another reason to kiss you," Sarah teased, kissing Chuck again. Afterwards, he checked his wrist. That time, she hadn't tried something. He smiled at the thought of the next attempt.

"Dad said it'll be a couple days. I don't know why he'd take that long…" Sarah had a Cheshire smile and said. "You know something, don't you? What?"

She relented. "He has a cabin he was using as Orion."

"So?"

"It's secluded. He hasn't celebrated a New Year with his wife in a while…"

"So the other Governor and Hartley have to wait?"

"They have to wait while your parents have sex."

"I was going to say play cards, like cribbage or double solitaire."

"That's what they used to call it, huh?" Sarah wiggled her eyebrows. She was getting good at the Bartowski eyebrow dance, a skill she had been practicing because she wanted to have it down before actually becoming a Bartowski. Her timing needed some work. It shouldn't be used when talking about Bartowski parents doing things he didn't want to think about.

They didn't know what was going to happen with Hartley/Volkoff. Chuck's dad was confident that he could remove the Intersect from his friend's head. He even had a prototype removal device in the basement of their old home in Encino. The CIA was going to love getting their hands on the treasure trove of information in the Orion Cave.

Ellie provided some advice on Hartley. As a doctor, she was optimistic because memory has a lot of redundancy, but she cautioned that it wasn't as simple as restoring a computer backup. They didn't know if he would become Harley, remembering what he did as Volkoff, or whether he would forget almost thirty years. Remembering his time as Volkoff would give Harley incredible guilt. Forgetting Volkoff was a problem on two fronts.

First, Chuck's mom mentioned a network that Volkoff used to control operatives and arms deals around the world, called Hydra. The CIA had been leery of her upon her return. To Beckman, it helped that she brought Orion back into the fold and that her desire to protect the two Intersects was clear. (The fact Orion was a third Intersect was kept a family secret.) The CIA wanted her to go after various parts of Hydra. That would be easier for her because of her high position in Volkoff's organization, but it would help if she could get Harley to share Volkoff's knowledge.

The second complication was as Volkoff, Harley fathered a daughter, Vivian McArthur. They wouldn't want him to live with the guilt of mass murder when it was an artificial personality, but he shouldn't forget a daughter.

Those were problems to deal with after the holiday. For now, Chuck would just sit at the edge of the party, listen to good music (from a playlist he had compiled), and enjoy having the most beautiful woman in the world on his lap.

He said, "It's a good thing this chair can support both of our weights."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"No, of course not. And everyone knows muscle weighs more than fat." Sarah's glare intensified. He was almost certain it was teasing. _Of course_ she wasn't fat. She had to be messing with him. "All I'm saying is we are both _tall_ people, and I'm glad this chair can support me and the other tall person with me because I really like having her in my arms." Sarah's look melted into one of her "I love you" smiles, and she gave him a solid kiss.

"Lights" by Journey played. Chuck hoped Journey was good for any party, even when there wasn't a dance floor. Everyone at the party, up until that point, was a friend of Ellie and Devon, but two people that they knew arrived, holding hands. They were greeted by the host and hostess who were in their element. The new arrivals spotted where Chuck and Sarah were in the corner and waived before coming over.

Chuck's bearded friend said, "See, Alex. That makes four people you know here. I don't know anyone else here either, but this is _the place_ to be. They're even guarding my personal entrance."

"Hi, Alex," Sarah said. "Morgan, you know that the Morgan door is normally locked, now." She motioned to the window behind her.

"I know. Now I know it's because of your super-secret job."

"Security is not the only reason why. The curtains are also usually drawn because Chuck and I might be having sex." That was true, but it didn't keep Chuck from starting to turn red. He could tell Alex was not altogether comfortable with the way this conversation was going, either. Morgan just rocked his head side to side, acknowledging that was a good reason.

At least to Chuck, it looked like Alex and Morgan were really into each other. _Good for him_, he thought. Although, 'whatever' he had with Carina was probably safer than a relationship with _Casey's daughter_. (Anna, on the other hand, was a freaky psycho.) He didn't think they were aware of the information that he and Sarah flashed on a week ago, yet. He decided to stay clear of the topic. "Glad you both made it."

Alex leaned towards them and asked in a whisper, "It's good to see a couple faces I already know. Are all of these people spies?"

Chuck answered right away, "Of course, not." Sarah didn't like it when someone called him a "spy," and she made sure people knew he was an "analyst" not an "agent." He was fairly certain it was because "spy" normally meant "agent," and she was always happier when he was safely out of the field. Technically, hacking into computer networks was 'spying,' but he wasn't going to argue with her about that. "This one," he squeezed his hold on the love of his life in his lap, "is the only one of those here. There's another one, who you met, in his apartment across the courtyard. I do computer work for our team.

Alex nodded so she seemed to understand that most of the people were civilians, meaning it wasn't a party of spooks. Chuck thought that they really should give Alex and Morgan more information in the next few days. Alex had to talk to Casey, first, but after that, they should clear up a little of the mystique because it wouldn't do any good for her to think the Burbank Buy More was full of spies. Morgan would just make the wrong assumptions, like he had with Sarah's "superpowers." If they told him just enough truth, he'd understand the importance of protecting the secret and wouldn't spout crazy theories or surmise the wrong thing.

Sarah had a different take. "But they're the enemy."

That assertion concerned Alex, Morgan, and even Chuck. No one was close enough to hear what they were talking about, but you don't just go around saying things like that. When an assassin was talking, there was a non-zero possibility that someone could end up dead. Chuck asked her, "What do you mean? These people are Devon's frat buddies and people my sister and Devon work with at the hospital."

"Different kind of enemy."

"What do you mean? You've met them before. Casey even ran background checks on virtually all of them after last year's Halloween party."

"When I met them back then, we were all in costume, and I didn't know the threat. When you first met them, it was before I met you." Chuck gulped. "Ellie told me about all of the single women she brought to see you at your birthday party the day before I knew you."

"Nothing happened. I didn't set up a date or even try to get a phone number."

"Because you talked about Jill. Ellie told me." Chuck gulped again. This wasn't going well.

That birthday party was a social disaster from his five years of self-pity, only to be capped off with an Intersect email that made him pass out on the floor. If Chuck wasn't careful, this New Year's party might also end with another injury. That party was so long ago and such a complete flop from that part of his life, Chuck had practically forgotten about meeting anyone there. Morgan was there, though. The two of them had tried to escape out the very window they sat in front of.

Morgan picked up on Alex's lack of background and explained. "You know when on the way here I told you that story you thought was funny and probably thought I made up about that fantastic rescue? I know you thought I was telling you a comic book story idea to impress you about me becoming the next Stan Lee, but it actually happened." Alex's eyes widened in surprise. "I was the hostage. Sarah was the superhero who rescued me. The supervillain that she eliminated was Chuck's evil-ex from six years ago, Jill. That's the same Jill that Sarah was just talking about. All of these people here tonight don't know her, so we're safe."

Chuck didn't want her too concerned. It was bad enough that her first time around them had led to a pineapple and an evacuation to a secret base. She didn't know about Casey being her father, yet, so she was sticking around because of Morgan. No need to undermine that. He said, "You have nothing to worry about, Alex. These women don't have anything to worry about either, as long as I keep holding Sarah." Chuck tightened his arms around the person perched on his lap.

That reassurance seemed to work for Alex. She looked around and had a new question. "How are Emma and Molly? I see they aren't here, which makes sense because this party is set up for either of their ages."

Sarah innocently said, "Who?"

"The two people I met last week. Sarah, I thought they were related to you."

"I don't know who that could be."

Morgan tried to back his date. "When the older woman originally asked for Chuck—"

Chuck cut him off. "You must be confused." He quietly said, "There were only nine of us there last week. That's what official government reports say, and that's what video evidence shows. Sarah's an only child and hasn't seen her mom in almost twenty years. Got it?" He stared at his friend trying to send some understanding.

"Oh, right. I understand." Morgan nodded his head dramatically as he spoke. "Alex, we only met Chuck's parents and the people here tonight."

Alex caught the clue. "I was mistaken. This is a parent-free party."

Chuck started coughing. There _was_ one parent there, though he wasn't actually with the rest of the party. They needed to change the subject. Morgan didn't have a car, so he and Alex must have walked, possibly a couple miles. He suggested, "You can help yourself to a drink."

"I'm only 20," Alex said.

Alex was the youngest one at the party. Chuck didn't know Sarah's exact birthday, but he knew she was older than him. Morgan was too. Alex seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and in many ways was more mature than Morgan, but he seemed to not mind the age difference. You couldn't talk to Morgan for five minutes without getting a clue. "Our job isn't to enforce things like that, and we won't tell anyone. Besides, it's widely known that college students who are 20 drink more than people who are 22."

A couple days ago, Casey shared his "background report" on Alex with pride. It was very thorough and had things like her high school and college transcripts. Somehow he had gotten a hold of all of her school pictures through the years, going back to kindergarten. Chuck wouldn't be surprised if parts of it ended up on his refrigerator.

"Thanks, Chuck," Alex said with a smile, "but when I kiss my date at midnight to bring in the New Year, I want no question that social lubricant wasn't necessary." Morgan's eyes became circles and his mouth dropped open at the realization that _he_ was Alex's date. It was obvious he liked that plan.

Casey was staying inside during the party, but he had a tendency of watching through his blinds. It would be a good idea to make sure Morgan and Alex were not in his sight-line. Chuck nonchalantly said, "Sarah, where do you think—"

Fortunately, she picked up on Chuck's worry and interrupted. "Alex, your… Alex, Casey wants to see you. He lives in that apartment over there. Just knock on the door. He's not planning on joining everyone out here, tonight, but he can pause whatever he's watching."

That made no sense to Alex. "Why would he want to talk to me? Is this about the other night?"

"Yeah. Part of his job is doing background checks on everyone. Don't worry. I've seen yours. You have no red flags. He's thorough, so as was mentioned, he's checked out everyone here. Since you know more of what we do than everyone else, he can give you an 'all clear' in person."

"Okay," Alex said slowly. She let go of Morgan's hand and squeezed his arm before going to see what why she was actually being dispatched.

With Morgan alone with Chuck and Sarah, he asked, "What is that really about? Is she going to get into trouble because I took her down to Sarah's Fortress of Solitude?"

Sarah didn't understand the reference, so Chuck answered for her with a little context. "Sarah can do amazing things, but she doesn't have an ice castle like Superman." He knew the name of the secret base was "Castle," but that didn't mean it was the same thing. "Alex _will not _get in trouble for being there. She did the _right_ thing. Casey has something to tell her about her background."

As thick as Morgan was sometimes, he didn't miss it this time. "You do know what this is really about, don't you?"

"Alex should hear it first," Sarah said.

Morgan dropped it and started in about the woman who was most on his mind. "Isn't Alex great, though? I didn't think she'd appreciate riding over here on my bicycle handlebars, so I picked her up at her place, and we walked over. We talked the entire way, non-stop. It's been dark for hours, so it was too late to be called a 'sunset' stroll, but I thought the street lights were romantic. I hope she did. When we were talking, she laughed at all my jokes. She was laughing and smiling even about other things. She gets me; it's almost like we share a brain. We're going to be heading home late, but it's a nice night out for another long walk just holding hands. And did you hear what she said? I think a second date is a good possibility."

Chuck was happy for his friend. It was early in the relationship, but he seemed to find someone that 'fit' with him this time—a lot more than promiscuous and absent Carina and a lot more than crazy Anna. The only concern was what her _dad_ would think about it.

The door to Casey's apartment slammed shut, and Alex stormed over. Apparently the news had not gone well. Alex remained focused on Morgan the entire way back to them. When she reached him, she put her hands forcefully on the sides of his face and planted a strong kiss on his lips.

When they finally split apart, both Morgan and Alex looked a little surprised. The party's music was "Beginnings" by Chicago, making it their song, but he didn't think that was the reason for the surprise. Earlier, Morgan had heard Alex's pronouncement of her plan, so of course an earlier kiss before midnight was completely unexpected.

Alex's fury was gone, replaced with surprise at something that affected her more than she thought it would. She licked her lips. Some people did the opposite of what their parents did. (Then some people, like the one on his lap, did exactly what a parent wanted, only to later shoot him. Maybe not multiple people, but definitely her.) Being contrary was probably a lot of what had initially motivated Alex and benefited Chuck's best friend. She wasn't simply blindly following the orders of her father, and both she and Morgan were happy with the result.

Morgan stammered a few words. "What? Not that I didn't… That was amazing…"

Sarah said in a serious tone, "Alex. What did your father say?"

"My what? I talked to _that man_ you work with who knew my father before I was born. He said I should stay away from Morgan. Frankly, it's none of his business, so I came out here and made my view of the matter clear. I wasn't expecting it to feel like _that_, but I'm _definitely_ not complaining."

Sarah pulled up Chuck's wrist, but she didn't try to swap his watch with hers. Instead, she pressed the emergency alert button. Within seconds, Casey was standing next to them in the bathrobe he had put on to binge watch a DVD set for the evening. "What's the problem, Walker?" he gruffly asked.

Sarah shut off the alert on Chuck's watch and said, "The problem is you didn't talk to Alex about what you're supposed to talk to her about. She just said you knew her father and shared your opinion about her and Morgan. I don't agree with your assessment at all. I think they make a cute couple, but what do I know? I've only been engaged a year and a week, which is shorter than others, depending on how you count it. Why did you say you knew her father?"

Casey was slow to answer because he wasn't expecting to get dressed down by someone other than his superior office, a diminutive, red-haired general. Alex cleared up the mix, "He didn't say that. I only assume that all three of you knew him or of him based on how you acted last week. He just said I should stay away from Morgan."

Sarah didn't wait for Casey to defend himself. "At least you didn't say something stupid about that. However, trying to keep her away from my future best-friend-in-law? This is the person that boosted my Chuck's self-esteem when they were only ten years old. I'd put his loyalty up against anyone in the Marines. Yes, that includes you. I completely disagree with your views on that matter. Don't you think Alex deserves to hear _why_ you made it your business?"

In the Southern California area, Chuck had never seen a deer while he was driving a car, but "deer in headlights" was an apropos phrase. Casey nodded in resignation and quietly said, "Alex, there's something I should explain."

Alex looked to the two sitting members of the CIA to see what she should do. Sarah said, "Go ahead, Alex. We'll make sure Morgan doesn't wander off. Before Casey does something like that again, he should remember he and I have a sparring session on Monday. Chuck can take down the Internet for the building if I ask nicely. My future sister-in-law has been teaching me more about doing things in the kitchen. I'm thinking I should teach her what I know about the seasoning Elana Truffaut used. Also, I know where he lives." The way Sarah so easily had those threats ready ready made Chuck shiver. He was definitely glad she was on his side.

The threats worked as Casey looked taken back. He nodded once and said, "I'm very sorry, Alex. There's something you deserve to know." Alex followed her father back to his apartment. She just didn't know Casey was her father… yet.

Morgan asked, "What's going on?"

Chuck and Sarah refused to give him a direct answer, so Morgan went to get some finger food that had been put out.

Very shortly after he returned, Alex slowly came out, shock evident on her face as she absently came over. It was clear that this time, Casey had broken the news: He was her father. Alex Coburn was never really dead, as she had grown up believing.

When the dazed civilian joined them, "I See the Light" played on the speakers. Alex looked to Chuck and Sarah. Sarah said, "It's true." Alex's shocked expression didn't change with the confirmation.

Morgan asked, "What wrong?"

Alex answered with a question. "Morgan, if you found out something really surprising about me, would you still kiss me at midnight?"

"Of course. After _whatever_ that was earlier, why would I want to do anything else? I can't stop thinking about how this night is going to keep getting better. What is so bad? Is this about Casey?"

"He just said, and the two of them confirmed, he's my father."

"I thought your father—"

"I thought that, too. Faking that must be part of what he does."

Sarah interjected. "Alex, _none_ of us knew until last week—not even him."

Morgan didn't look as concerned as Chuck would expect, so it hadn't fully sunk it. He actually spoke up on Casey's behalf. "That guy is about as straight-laced as you get. At the Buy More, which I guess is not his real job, he's one of the few people besides Chuck who can be counted on to actually do what he is supposed to do. The night I was kidnapped he looked out for others by making sure Ellie and Awesome were safe. Last week, he took out a hit squad to protect us all."

He reflected aloud about the father of his date. Chuck could tell the instant it hit him. "That man has a lot of guns… Chuck and Sarah, you two need to get married. Like right away. Sarah, I talk about us being _future _best-friends-in-law, but if you're going to protect me from him, it might help if we drop the 'future.'"

Sarah laughed, "You're already safe, Morgan. Casey knows I already consider Chuck my husband, and he knows that I know you're really important to him. You're family. Family is off-limits. Alex, you're family, too."

"Good," Morgan said. "That means the next time I want to kiss this beautiful woman next to me, I have a superhero to protect me."

Alex shyly said, "You still want to kiss me?"

"Of course."

Questions were over as they started devouring each other's faces. To an outside observer, it was actually a little awkward looking, but they didn't seem to care.

Sarah looked at the empty chair next to them and got up to move it a few yards to the side so her legs wouldn't hang over it and so it wasn't in the direct line of sight of Casey's window. Chuck announced to the couple still making out, "It's all yours." Morgan waved an acknowledgement, but they didn't separate as the two of them took over the other chair.

It was still a few minutes until midnight, but Sarah and Chuck agreed there was no need to wait for the clock in the Pacific Time Zone as they started taking part in the tradition early.

* * *

A/N: I hope that was fluffy enough, even with a certain Marine not cooperating. Everyone still doesn't know _everything_, but people know most of what they _should_ know. On the fluff-side, at least Chuck and Sarah spent _most_ of the chapter with their arms around each other.

That's it for the Intersect couple is this AU story that parallels the first half of season 2 (with some of season 4 mixed in). Many of the story lines from the second half of season 2 no longer make sense: the Mauser shooting fall-out, Best Friend with no Anna, Suburbs UST, Cole as a PLI, the 49-B, Dream Job when Chuck has two good jobs, and the searches for Orion/Stephen. The Intersect 2.0 doesn't make as much sense with two Intersects, one of whom already has many 2.0 skills. Also, in case I haven't been clear… Bryce is already and still dead. So, I'm calling it for this story. (I said that after "Chuck vs His Former Handler," but ended up writing "Chuck & His Roommate vs the Next Mission," so you never know.) Someone did give me a one-shot idea last week and an idea for the start of an incomplete one-shot idea that has been poking my brain since June of last year.

Chuck's playlist:  
"Get the Party Started" by Pink  
"Until The End of Time" by Foreigner  
"Lights" by Journey  
"Beginnings" by Chicago  
"I See the Light" by Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi (It came out after the timeline of this chapter, but why not?)


End file.
